The Unlikely Invite

By Pastor Rey Diaz

In seventh grade, I received an invitation to join one of my teachers for lunch.  His name was Mr. Manning. I had no idea what he wanted to talk to me about but I assumed it was my bad attitude, bad influence, and bad grades.  I was not the model student.  I had just been arrested the week before for fighting.  I had been suspended for 3 days and had served a number of detentions.  It was just going to be another teacher rebuking me for my bad decisions. Mr. Manning was everyone’s favorite teacher.  He also coached a flag football team for the school and led a Christian Bible club. 

I’ve never forgotten what Mr. Manny said to me that day.  He basically said he didn’t think I was a bad kid.  I can’t tell you what this did for my identity.  I saw myself as a bad kid, yet here was a teacher telling me I was good.  And he invited me to come to his Bible club.  That was the beginning of my return to God and one year later I accepted Jesus as my savior.  A simple invitation started a domino effect. 

There was no one more unlikely to receive an invitation from Jesus that Matthew, the tax collector.  He was bad and he knew it.  He had abandoned God, the synagogue and his faith.  He wasn’t an ‘accidental’ sinner.  He was an ‘on-purpose’ sinner.  Yet Jesus makes an invitation. An invitation to follow.  And it’s an invitation that would change Matthew’s life. 

Every single day, at every moment of our life, Jesus is making an invitation to us.  It’s the same one he made to Matthew.  “Follow me.” 

And this invitation was the first and last words Peter heard from Jesus.  Follow me.  It was a reminder that it doesn’t matter whether we have been following Jesus for 30 minutes or 30 years. Discipleship is not a destination or location.  The question is not “Where am I?” but “Am I following?”

It’s the question I want to answer this morning.  It’s the question I want you pray about today. 

Are you following?

Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.”