'Fight Club - Main Event' at Grace Church

 

 Men Gathered (left-click on images to enlarge them). 

 

Over 100 men gathered for breakfast and a “Main Event” meeting at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 15, 2012.

The Main Event gathering served as the launch of an extended version of a new Grace Church ministry called “Fight Club,” according to Ryan Peterson, a young father, husband and former tennis instructor who serves as Grace Church’s spiritual development pastor.

In advertising the event, Peterson wrote, “For too long, the church of America has made men into ‘nice guys,’ and we are inviting men into an adventure to fight in the front lines of a real battle we are facing every day.”

He says that battle “begs men to become ‘Heroes’ to their families, ‘Leaders’ in their places of influence and ‘Forceful Men of God’ to advance God’s kingdom, forcefully.” 

  Buck Mims, pictured, opened the meeting. 

Buck Mims welcomed attendees and thanked Gold’s Gym of Southern Pines for loaning some equipment for the event. A large punching bag, boxing gloves and barbells “graced” the church’s podium, adding to the “Fight Club” theme.

Mims introduced Peterson. Attendees sat at large roundtables brought into the church sanctuary. 

 Ryan Peterson laid out statistics for attendees.

“Forty-eight percent of males of ages 18-34 play video games an average of three hours per day,” Peterson said.

He said some men continue living like 13-year-olds. He called them “posers” – “boys acting as (and saying they are) men.”

“They have a hard time getting into relationships with men … and women,” he said, adding that some men “look at porn, rather than discover what their wives’ hearts look like.”

Peterson said that many women, today, are asking men to marry them. He noted that three women are raped each minute in the U.S.

“There’s $3,000 every second spent on porn [in the U.S.],” he said. “There are 28,000 people per second viewing porn. What if our Bibles were getting 28,000 hits per second by men? … We need to get more addicted to God’s word than to pornography.”

He said that God’s answer for this nation is the Church. 

“Let’s make sure our lives affect those around us,” Peterson said. “We have a fatherless nation, right now. Many boys are in jail because they had no father figures. … We have to have the humility to know it’s not about us.”

He said men in America have lost “identity” and are “passive.” He advised that men “need to find out who we are, despite what we do.”

 

Peterson referred to Genesis 1:26 NIV: “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

 

“We are made in God’s image,” Peterson said. “There is an image of power.”

He talked about Satan tempting Eve to become like God.

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6 NIV).

Referring to the last words in that verse, Peterson said Adam was “with” her; he explained that the Hebrew word for “with” means “elbow to elbow.”

He inferred that Adam might have stopped Eve from falling for Satan’s temptation, but Adam “sat there, passive.”

Peterson painted the U.S. as “a nation of passive men with identity problems.”

“Satan tranquilized Adam with passivity,” he said. “Thankfully, there’s a ‘Second Adam.’”

He read Matthew 3:17 NIV: “And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”

“Jesus got his identity way before he did anything,” Peterson said. “Go before your ‘Father in heaven’ and listen to who you are. You and I need to hear our names before anything else happens.”

He said Satan tempted Jesus after Jesus was baptized and led by the Spirit in a wilderness. He questioned Jesus’ identity by emphasizing the word “if.”

“The tempter came to him [Jesus] and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread’” (Matthew 4:3 NIV).

“Satan is up to the same thing [as with Adam],” Peterson said. “Jesus was secure in being the Son of God. Before Satan comes, you and I need to know who we are.”

He said Jesus was tempted after he fasted for 40 days.

“When you’re at your weakest point is when Satan hits,” Peterson said. “Satan will attack your identity, so you will become passive, tranquilized. … In the Garden, God asked [Adam], ‘Where are you?’ That’s the same question God’s asking, today. Stop hiding behind your fig leaf. … ‘Where are you in your relationship with me?’ God is asking. … There is a battle that rages.”

He referred to Exodus 15:13 NIV: “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.”

“What if we were more dependent on the Holy Spirit than our own thoughts?” Peterson asked. “Are we living as warriors or as routine men?”

He said God is a warrior (Exodus 15) and that Paul referred to Christians as “soldiers of Christ.”

He quoted Jeremiah 51:20 NIV: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle – with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.”

Peterson said, “God says, ‘I want to use you.’ Before we can ask others to follow, we have to follow. … You and I have to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

He referred to Paul’s statement found in 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

“Walk more in His power,” Peterson said.

He talked about putting on “the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10-20) and said there is a (spiritual) war going on.

 Nine men - some tell about involvement with "Fight Club." 

He invited his audience to watch scenes from “Gladiator.” The audience watched scenes from that movie, and then Peterson invited nine men – men he has been leading in Bible study – onto the stage. (A tenth man had already departed to attend college.)

Some of the men told what being in the “Fight Club” meetings for a year with Peterson had meant to them.

One man said, “God didn’t design us for our wives to drag us to church.”

Another man said the group meetings led him to be baptized in water, something he had not done after his years-age conversion to Christ.

A man said the group had helped him with his problem with anger. “I’d take it out on my wife; God’s definitely dealing with me,” he said.

A grey-haired father said he was the “OG” (old guy) in their group. His son, 19, who is now attending college and leading a Bible group at that college, participated last year in the Fight Club group with his father. The father, who noted that he’d been a Christian for 30 years, said, “This group’s something I’ve never experienced before in Christianity.”

Peterson referred to Philippians 4:13: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” He asked the men in his audience to sign up for more Fight Club groups he wants to help organize at Grace Church.  

### ------------- The below photograph shows Rick Payne, who attended the Sept. 9, 2012, Fight Club meeting. Rick has served a long time as head deacon at Grace Church in Southern Pines. Rick recently suffered a stroke and is recovering. Rick is definitely a Fight Club type of guy, a tender but tough-when-needed Christian man who is admired by many. 

 Rick Payne poses at the Sept. 9, 2012, Fight Club meeting.

Take the City

From a sermon by Pastor Randy Thornton (pictured above with his wife, Sarah) 

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The Rev. Randy Thornton, senior pastor of Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., said he recently talked with a businessman who said, “Sometimes we get so busy, we forget what business we’re in.”

 “We have to drop back to the essentials,” Thornton said, as he introduced his August 5, 2012 Sunday message called “Take the City.”

He told of recently helping start new church plants in West End, N.C., and Leland, N.C. “Last year we gave away over 100 people to do God’s work.”

He explained that about 60-70 people are meeting in a satellite church plant in West End and 45 people have relocated from Grace Church in Southern Pines to Leland, a town that is part of the “Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area.”

Thornton said that when you die, God will ask you two questions: 1. Did you know Jesus as your personal Savior? 2. What did you do with the resources, talents and opportunities God gave to you to fulfill what he had for you to do during your lifetime?

He read Luke 18:31 (NIV): “Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.’”

Thornton said that when he served in the U.S. Army, his squad was his “Jerusalem” and that when he worked for UPS, his fellow workers were his “Jerusalem.”

“Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors … not people likely to change the world,” he said.

The Apostle Paul said, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:26-28 NIV).

“God always calls you to something greater than you can accomplish on your own,” Thornton said. “The ability to ‘do it’ comes out of an intimate, daily relationship with him.”

Thornton grew up in Colorado, which he called “God’s country,” because of its beauty and hunting and fishing opportunities. After his conversion to Christ, he served in the U.S. Army and ultimately was stationed at Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C. He received a “call to ministry” and studied at a Fayetteville Bible college. He married Sarah, who grew up in Moore County, N.C. He left the army and worked for UPS in Fayetteville. He felt “called” to start a church in Southern Pines, which he considered “not a very religious place,” and was assigned later to work at the Southern Pines UPS location.

“I wanted to go there [Colorado], not Southern Pines,” he said. “The thing I didn’t do is play golf. It didn’t ‘float my boat.’ And where did God send me? To the golf capital of the U.S.A. … Now, I love the city. I plan on living and dying here.”

Thornton says he wants Grace Church to “Take the City.” He talked about King David’s “taking” the City of Jerusalem during Old Testament times.

He read from 2 Samuel 5:6-10 NIV:

“The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, ‘You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.’ They thought, ‘David cannot get in here.’ Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David.

^“ On that day David had said, ‘Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those lame and blind who are David’s enemies.’ That is why they say, ‘The blind and lame will not enter the palace.’

“ David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward. And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.”

Thornton said David might have taken Jerusalem by secretly wading into the city through its sewer system. He said that after being in the pastoral ministry for many years, he thinks David probably did have to go into the city through the sewer system.

He said we should cultivate faithfulness wherever we are. He referred to Psalm 37:3: “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”

Grace Church, located not far from Ft. Bragg, is home to many military families.

“I love the military families,” Thornton said. “They come in and say, ‘I won’t be here long, but as long as I’m here, I’m here, and I’m going to be here.’”

God didn’t call us just to live our lives and enjoy them, he noted.

“God called you to reach people,” Thornton said. “The only Jesus some people will ever see is the Jesus in you. … See your neighborhood, your workplace as the ‘city’ you are ‘to take.’”

He said that when he worked in “the secular world,” the people who gave him the hardest times were those who later came to faith in Christ.

“They were testing me to see if the Jesus in me was real,” he said. “Bloom where you are planted. God will ask, ‘What did you do with your resources?’ I want to hear ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”

Thornton talked about 2 Samuel 6:12 NIV: 

“Now King David was told, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.’ So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.”

“When God’s presence is in the house – your company, your city – God’s going to bless your company because of you,” Thornton said. “Do you want God in your city? Then, like David, go get it [“the ark”] and bring it back, and let it reside in your presence.”

He said worship is not about making you happy; it’s about making God happy.

“Some of us come in here like sour lemons,” he said. “Some wait for the music to be over. … God said to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”

“If you are not spending time with God, how are you going to know what to do in your city?” Thornton asked.

He said God’s house should be a house of prayer for all nations (Mark 11:17). 

He read Luke 19:41: “As he [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.”

“Are you burdened for your city to the point you’re willing to weep?” Thornton asked. “The Jews think it’s all about them, but Jesus said, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.’”

Luke 19:45-46: “When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.’”

“You’ve become religious with religious activities,” Thornton said. “‘BUSY’ means ‘Being Under Satan’s Yoke.’ Distractions can consume time.”

He said that most of the Early Church’s miracles didn’t take place in churches.

“Jesus saw everyday – where he went – as a place of ministry,” Thornton said.

He stated that 85 percent of church youths graduating from high school walk away from God after graduation. He added that 85 percent of young people who grow up involved in ministry in church – ministries such as church nursery, handing out bulletins, etc. – remain in church after they grow up. He stated that 70 percent of aspiring pastors who attend seminary but don’t become involved in ministry while attending seminary never enter the ministry.

“Everybody loves a committed pastor, a ‘little j (Jesus)’ who does everything for them,” Thornton said. “He [God] called me to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. My job is to help you do your job.”

The “American church” thinks the pastor is to do all the work of the ministry, he said.

He read Ezekiel 37:1 NIV, a passage describing God showing Ezekiel a scene and asking him a question: “The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’”

“When God asks you a question, he already knows the answer,” Thornton said. “God asked Ezekiel, ‘Can these bones live?’ God wants us to raise an army of disciples to take the city. Go do that which he called you to do. … You can’t do it on your own. Pray. Ask God to give you a burden for your city, neighborhood. … This is a sheep pen getting sheep ready to go get slaughtered. … How many of you would be willing to say, ‘I’ll go where you want me to go’? I’m going to pray for you … so God will help you see your city as your mission field. … Go, therefore, and make disciples … disciples who disciple people.”

Thornton prayed a concluding prayer:

“Father, I pray for the call of God over every man, every woman, every young person and every child in this room. … I pray for you to put a burden on their hearts. … Show them their ‘cities’ and give them a love for those people … a burden to pray, to bless those people. Bless where they walk. … I pray for each one here to become a disciple. … Give them opportunities to disciple others. … May they stand before you one day and hear you say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’”

Helping Hands Ministry Collects Items for Israel

Pictured is Tony Haywood of Helping Hands Ministry, headquartered in Moore County, N.C.

  

“Many Jewish people are migrating to Israel,” says Tony Haywood of West End. “Israel makes housing available to newcomers, but no material provisions are in those houses or apartments. Some immigrants arrive with little or nothing.”

Haywood and his wife, Donna, who founded Helping Hands Ministry in 1996, are collecting blankets, quilts, comforters, adult diapers and warm clothing to send to Israel. Only items listed may be shipped; the deadline for contributing items is September 15.

“Helping Hands Ministry is a nondenominational Christian ministry that delivers goods at no charge to the poor all over the world,” Haywood says. “We’ve shipped humanitarian items to over 20 countries.”

Haywood met Barry Feinman, founder of Jezreel International, at a TECH (Technical Exchange Christian Healthcare) conference in Boone, last year. TECH is a membership organization representing over 140 nonprofit Christian medical relief organizations. Haywood plans to ship collected-for-Israel items through Jezreel International to Nitzanei Oz, an Israeli settlement whose name in Hebrew literally means “Buds of Strength.”  

“The shipment is for The Joseph Project in Nitzanei Oz,” Haywood says. “Once it arrives, it will be distributed to 30 different humanitarian-aid projects in Israel. If you can help, it will be a huge blessing.”

 
Phone Tony Haywood at 910-690-5527 or e-mail him at tony.haywood1@gmail.com. 

Reference: www.helpinghandsnc.org.

'Surrounded and Surrendered'

From a message by Pastor David Schmaltz (pictured above with his wife and four children) 

Jesus “offended the religious and inspired the hungry,” said David Schmaltz, senior pastor of Valley Community Church in Weldon, N.C., as he spoke on July 1, 2012, at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C.

Valley Community Church is located in North Carolina’s Halifax County and is part of the Roanoke Rapids, N.C. “Micropolitan Statistical Area.” According to Wikipedia, a “Micropolitan Statistical Area” is an urban area in the U.S. that is based around an urban cluster (urban area) with a population of 10,000 to 49,000.

Schmaltz’s wife, Andrea Schmaltz, a keyboardist and vocalist who serves as Valley Community Church’s music and fine arts director, led the Grace Church worship before her husband preached on July 1. Their two daughters sang in the service, and their two sons helped with Grace’s children’s church.

Randy Thornton, Grace Church’s senior pastor, said he and Schmaltz had known each other since they worked together at Manna Church in Fayetteville. Schmaltz said he remembered when Thornton “came to Southern Pines” to plant Grace Church. 

In his sermon, Schmaltz discussed concepts found in “Not a Fan,” a book by Pastor Kyle Idleman. The book proposes that being a fan of Jesus is not the same as being a follower. 

Here is a statement from the book’s promotional material: “You may indeed be a passionate, fully devoted follower of Jesus. Or, you may be just a fan who admires Jesus but isn’t ready to let him cramp your style. Then again, maybe you’re not into Jesus, period. In any case, don’t take the question – Are you a follower of Jesus? – lightly. … ‘Not a Fan’ calls you to consider the demands and rewards of being a true disciple.”

Grace Church’s small groups have been studying “Not a Fan” during the summer of 2012.

Schmaltz titled his sermon “Surrounded and Surrendered.” He told about the story of the rich young ruler, which is recorded in Matthew 19:16-28:

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

“Jesus went after something that was very deep – the heart,” Schmaltz said. “He went for the jugular.”

There was an area in the rich young ruler’s life that was not fully sacrificed to God, Schmaltz noted. 

“You can’t follow Jesus without denying yourself,” he said. “For Americans, that doesn’t fit so well. … Becoming a follower is a true test of the heart. We all think the Devil is our problem. … The greatest deception is self-deception. It’s one step after another of dealing with internal motives of our hearts.”

Committed followers are willing to choose Jesus over personal comfort.

“When you seek personal comfort and make it a goal in your life, you begin to avoid difficulty,” Schmaltz said. “We have to learn to choose Jesus over personal comfort.”

Money is one of the biggest tests of the heart.

Schmaltz said he gave his life to Christ at age 17 and began tithing.

He said he asks some college students what they plan to do with their lives and they tell him many things. When he asks them “Have you asked God about that?” they appear stunned.

“They look at me like I’m an alien,” he said. “Like, ‘I’ve asked the guidance counselor.’” 

Maybe we really don’t deny ourselves the way Christ has called us to, Schmaltz said.

“In the area of indulging the flesh, we still haven’t learned that lesson,” he said. “To be a committed follower of Christ, we can’t choose the comfortable lifestyle – learning in many cases to give what you could have to somebody else.” 

He told of a lady who poured Pepsi for her husband and herself. A small bit of Pepsi remained in a large bottle. That portion was “flat” and had no fizz. She poured that into one glass and poured fresh Pepsi from a newly opened large bottle into another glass. Her husband watched as she kept the old Pepsi for herself and gave him the glass of fresh Pepsi. The husband said to a friend, “I never felt more loved.”

“A lot of little things add up to big things,” Schmaltz said.

Our “workaround” – we compartmentalize.

“We are not quite ready to have Christ shine his light on some area,” Schmaltz said.

He told of a nice couple that began attending Community Valley Church. They were “believers, confessing Christ, worshippers,” he said. They became involved in the life of the church, but he soon realized they were living together and not married. He “gave them time” and then talked with them about marrying. 

“They left; kind of broke our hearts – they compartmentalized,” Schmaltz said. “We start creating ‘truth’ that fits our lifestyles. They call that ‘Existentialism.’”

He talked about vegetarians who “eat meat they like.” They are sometimes called “flexitarians.”

“Christians do that to avoid personal pain and discomfort,” Schmaltz said. “Shall we go back and rewrite the words of Jesus? If we want to be committed followers, we have to examine our motives … stop compartmentalizing.”


 We’ve been given the highest calling of all. 

In the Old Testament, slavery began involuntarily, Schmaltz said. But at times, slaves could become free, and some chose to stay with the families they had served. 

“In the Bible, they call it a ‘bondservant,’” he said. “And that’s what Peter and Paul were saying about serving Jesus.”

[From “goodnewsarticles.com”: “There is a word the Bible uses to describe the true character of one who serves God in the proper attitude of surrender. That Greek word is “doulos.” Romans 1:1: ‘Paul, a servant (doulos) of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God … .’ The word translated ‘servant’ in this verse is more properly rendered ‘bondslave.’ This Greek word, ‘doulos,’ is the most servile term in the New Testament. It speaks of one whose will is swallowed up in the will of another … a slave who is bound to his master unto death. He is one who has only the will of his master in mind. A bondslave does not belong to himself. He has no rights.”]

“Becoming a ‘bondslave’ is the path to true freedom,” Schmaltz said, adding that Bob Dylan, who reportedly became a Christian convert, wrote and sang “You gotta serve somebody.”

Schmaltz said “Lord” means “you’re my Master.”

“But when you understand who Jesus is, it all makes sense,” he said. “Jesus has our past and future covered. If we’re going to become enslaved to anyone, it’s him. To try to live our lives without God seems ‘right.’ But living a life without Christ is painful. You may have been walking with God many years, but are you a bondslave?”

Schmaltz said Millard Fuller was a successful and very wealthy man, but his wife left him. He found her at a motel, weeping, saying she couldn’t handle it [the wealth and lifestyle] anymore.
“They gave their lives to Christ and served God,” Schmaltz said. “They later formed ‘Habitat for Humanity.’ That took a choice on their part.”

He said that freedom without God will bring “a leanness to your soul.” Serving Christ will cost you something – yes, it’ll cost you everything, he noted.

We should not look at the things we don’t have, he said.  

“Thank God for the things he’s spared you from,” Schmaltz said. “I thank God for the simplicity of my life. … Do this everyday, say, ‘I’m giving it all back.’ Let’s think about what Jesus has done for each of us.”

Schmaltz closed in prayer, saying, “Lord, you’ve called us to deny ourselves, and we know that’s not easy. … Lord, you will provide everything we need. … Lord, that high calling … to be bondservants to you. … Lord, I give up. I’m surrounded by your truth. I give up. Lord, teach us, lead us, in Jesus’ name.”

### www.valleychurch.us and www.gracechurchsp.org.

'Follow Me'

From a sermon by Pastor Ryan Peterson, pictured above with his wife, Rebekah

During the time Jesus walked the earth in physical form, Jewish boys who were five years of age wanted to be rabbis, said Ryan Peterson. (A rabbi is a teacher of the “Torah,” which is made up of the “first five books of the Jewish Bible.)

Peterson preached recently on “Follow Me” at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C. As Grace Church's spiritual development pastor and leader of the church's 20/30 Young Adults Ministry, he serves under Grace's Senior Pastor Randy Thornton. 

Peterson said many Jewish boys [during the period of Jesus’ earthly ministry] had already memorized the Torah by the time they were ten years old. (The word “Torah” in Hebrew is derived from a root word meaning “to guide” or “teach,” according to Wikipedia.)

At 15 to 18 years of age, the better students of Judaism [in those days] attached themselves to rabbis.

“They left home to follow the rabbis,” Peterson said. “In a few cases, rabbis chose their own students. The students wanted to become everything the rabbis were. At ages 20 to 30, they would be doing what they dreamed about at age five.”

Peter and Andrew were fishermen.

“Maybe they lived with their parents,” Peterson said. “Peter and Andrew maybe failed to be rabbis. What in your life is like Peter and Andrew?”

Peter and Andrew were doing a common job by the seaside.

“They weren’t really qualified [to be rabbis],” Peterson said,” but Jesus offered them two words: ‘Follow me.’”

Jesus issued a “life calling” for the two men.

“Immediately they left their nets,” Peterson said. “They dropped everything they had and signed up. [They essentially said] ‘I’m all in.’”

Peterson said the two words – “Follow me” – are “words of hope.”

“Even Satan believes in God, but few are willing to follow God,” he said. “God’s not as interested in calling the qualified as in qualifying those he calls.”

A follower does whatever it takes, Peterson said, adding, “Jesus says [to Peter and Andrew], ‘You have the opportunity to hang out with me, a rabbi.’”

Peterson told his audience that God promises grace which is “sufficient” and that God offers an invitation of two words: “Follow me.”

After the audience sang the old song “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus,” Peterson closed the service with these words: “I want to give you the same invitation Jesus gave Peter and Andrew: ‘Follow me.’”

www.gracechurchsp.org