Dr Bill Patterson: If you have your Bibles, please go with me to the book of Luke chapter number 5. Luke chapter number 5. While you’re looking for this verse, how many of you would agree that this is the greatest book that’s ever been written?

I believe that this book not only contains the Word of God, I believe it is the Word of God, and I believe it will change our lives. I am so excited to have a copy of God’s Word translated for me into the English language. How many of you are glad that you have a Bible in front of you that you can read and understand?

Would you say amen to that? How many of you love God’s Word. Would you say amen to that?

How many of you believe that we should memorize God’s Word? Would you say amen to that? All right, would you quote with me John chapter 3 and verse number 16?

I didn’t hear anyone saying it with me. I don’t know what was happening there. Of course, that’s the way it was originally written in Greek.

In Hebrew, that verse says, For several years, we lived in India, and in Hindi, that verse says, I grew up in Mexico, and in Spanish, that verse says, The Lord allowed us to move to Olinbar, Mongolia. And we lived in Mongolia for eight years where we had the privilege of translating the New Testament. And in Mongolian that verse says, But in English, would you say it with me?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, aren’t you a little bit happier that you have the Bible in the English language instead of trying to learn one of those other languages that I just quoted for you? I am so grateful for God’s word.

Luke chapter 5, verse number 27. If you have it, would you please stand with me? We’re going to read from verse 27 down to verse number 32.

Luke chapter 5, verse 27 to 32. And after these things he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom. And he said unto him, follow me.

And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.

But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Our Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege of being able to come and preach this evening. Thank you, Lord, for what you’ve already done in this missions conference, and Lord, how you’ve spoken to my heart. Now, Lord, tonight we recognize that we need you.

Lord, without you I know I can do nothing, and so I ask that you would remove from our midst any obstacle from my mind or heart, from my mouth, anything that would impede that which you desire to do this evening. And Lord, I pray that the name of Jesus Christ would be honored and glorified through all that is said and done. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

You may be seated. When we observe the example of Matthew mentioned here in our text, he’s also called Levi. This same exact passage is almost the same as what we find in Matthew chapter number 9.

A beautiful story of the calling of Matthew, one of the disciples. We see a man that God greatly used. Job chapter number 11 talks about the importance of having a heart that is willing to serve God.

a heart that is willing to obey God, just like Matthew here in Luke chapter number 5. Job 11, 13 and 14 says, if thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands toward him, if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.

Exodus chapter 35 and verse number 21 says, and they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up and everyone whom his spirit made him willing and they brought the Lord’s offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation and for all his service and for the holy garments.

Luke chapter number one and verse number 17 says, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. But listen to this last phrase, and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. As you look into your heart tonight, would you say, my heart is prepared, it is willing, it is ready to serve God.

And if not, why is our heart not ready, willing, and prepared to serve the Lord? Look please if you would over in 2 Timothy chapter number 2 and verse number 21. 2 Timothy chapter number 2 and verse number 21.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master’s use and prepared unto every good work. I once heard this statement, being willing makes you able. I heard another person say, if the willingness is great, the obstacles cannot be great.

Some of you may have heard of a man by the name of Vince Lombardi. I’m not going to go into football right now. But he said this.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength. Not a lack of knowledge. But rather a lack of will.

Many times as we look at ourselves we say, oh I could never serve God that way. I could never go and be a missionary. I could never go and be a Bible translator.

I could never learn another language. When I was 11 years old, I was at school in Mexico. I grew up in Cuernavaca.

And I remember one day I was out running around and I jumped off of a platform about as high as this. And when I landed, I landed flat-footed. As soon as I landed, all of the air in my body came out because of the way I had landed.

And I fainted. I fell forward. As I fell forward, my head made contact with kind of an edge in the cement, in the sidewalk, that had gotten pushed up by a root of a tree, and there was this very sharp, jagged edge, and it hit me right here.

When it hit me, I had already passed out before it hit me, but it began a process in my brain where I had a concussion and my brain began to swell. As I was woken up a few minutes later, they brought some things and made me come back. And then I realized that something terrible was happening to me that day.

I noticed that everything became very dark. I lost my ability to see. Shortly after that, I lost my ability to talk.

They took me into the hospital and within a few minutes, I had gone into a coma. They called for a neurosurgeon to come from Mexico City and he got stuck in traffic and was not able to make it to Guernavaca until six hours later. During the hours that I was there at the hospital, time after time, the doctors told my parents, unless something happens soon, your son is going to die.

I’m very sorry. There is nothing that we can do until the neurosurgeon comes. The bones in my cranium had started to come apart.

You could literally see some of the x-rays. You can see the light coming through the bones in my cranium. The doctors said that I would most likely never walk again.

They said most likely I would never be able to speak again. They said that I would probably be a paraplegic for the rest of my life. And so as I lay in that hospital bed, my parents prayed for me.

They prayed that the neurosurgeon would arrive. He was going to come in and go through the back of my brain and he was going to clip it and he was going to do what’s called a lobotomy and be able to release the pressure that was in my brain.

When he came into the hospital to come and see me and perform the surgery, the first thing that he said was, what on earth why have you called me because at the moment he walked in my brain swelling suddenly went down back to its normal place I woke up I was able to see and I could speak and the doctor said there’s nothing wrong with this young man the doctor on call said please come here look at this x-ray as he began to study the

x-ray I still remember he began to shake He turned around.

He said, this is but a miracle. He said, I would have come here gladly just to see this. Medically, this is not possible.

I believe that day that God gave me an ability to learn languages that he wanted me to use for the purpose of Bible translation. I hope you realize that God is willing to take anyone who is willing to serve him and then equip them to do that which he has called them to do. He wants to take you tonight, but what he’s asking is for you to be just like Matthew.

Even though Matthew had not been trained yet, although Matthew had not had the first class in the Institute of the Christian Religion, although he had not had one class in homiletics, hermeneutics, or all the other things you can possibly imagine that you’ll study, he was willing to follow the Lord. And what God’s looking for tonight is for those who have a willing heart. Tonight I’d like to speak on the subject of how to have a willing heart.

You see, a willing heart is one that has been prepared to do anything God asks. And God wants his children to be willing to obey his desires for them. Now Matthew makes three decisions that I believe are an example to every Christian.

The first decision is this, be willing to sacrifice. You might say here in verse number 28 of our text, when it says that he left all. I hope you understand what he’s just done.

Now, Matthew was a tax collector and Matthew had a bench and he had a chair. And so if you would allow me, I’m going to take this chair and let’s just pretend for a moment that this is Matthew’s bench right here. And Matthew has this bench and he’s got a chair and he’s got a stamp on it.

And when people come to Matthew, he assesses their taxes. He decides how much tax they’re supposed to pay. He had the authority to do that.

Rome had said to Matthew, Matthew, you can tell people how much tax they have to pay. You look at what they have. You look at their house.

You look at how much income they have. Look at how many children they have and see if their wife is, you know, very beautiful, and then you decide how much tax they’re supposed to pay. And then, Matthew, you can also charge a percentage for yourself.

That was quite a good deal for Matthew. He could charge any amount he wanted to. Imagine if tax collectors today had that ability.

Well, maybe some of them do, but we just don’t know about it. And so that’s what Matthew had. He had a real deal going for him.

He was the IRS himself. I mean, he could do anything he wanted, and if people didn’t pay the taxes, Matthew could send the army to that person’s house and take anything he wanted and take that away from them. And so here’s Matthew and he’s just, you know, sitting here at his desk and he’s stamping, you know, the papers saying everybody’s paid their taxes and everything’s going great.

Suddenly Jesus walks by and Jesus looks over at him and says, follow me. That’s all. There’s no long explanation.

There’s no, there’s no, you know, here, sign on the dotted line. This is what I promise to do for you. I promise to always do this and this.

No, no, no, there’s no promises. He just says, follow me. And Matthew says, oh, that’s a good idea.

And he leaves everything. He leaves the stamp there. And he walks away.

And now he’s gone. And the chair’s still there. And the table’s still there.

And the rubber stamp’s still there. And everything’s still there. All the papers are still there.

Everything’s still there. Can you imagine the next guy that walks by? And he says, well here’s the table.

Here’s the chair. Hey, there’s the stamp. Check that out.

I wonder if I could just… Hey, this feels pretty good. Can you imagine what the next guy did?

We don’t know the rest of the story. Someday when I get to heaven I’m going to say, hey Matthew, you’ve got to tell me what happened. Of course by then it may not be important.

But I mean for right now I’d love to know the rest of the story. But Matthew just leaves. He just leaves everything behind.

He just stands up, says, oh, that’s a great idea, Lord. Why would someone be willing to sacrifice? Watch this.

Because he recognized the opportunity. As he looked at Jesus and he heard these words of Jesus and Jesus said, follow me. He said, that’s a really incredible opportunity.

I’m going to do that. I’m going to take Jesus up on that calling that he has just given to me. And so he recognized the opportunity.

Look over with me, please, in Philippians chapter 3, verses 13 and 14. Philippians 3, 13 and 14. See, the Bible says, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before.

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Notice, here’s this great prize. And Paul says, this is the greatest prize of all prizes, the prize of being called of God in Christ Jesus.

And so Matthew heard that call. and he said, boy, this is an opportunity I cannot lose. By the way, never forget that opportunities can be lost.

When God gives you an opportunity and he opens up a door for you, if you don’t step through that door, that door may eventually close. That opportunity may not be there forever. There may be opportunities that you have to go and serve the Lord, to go and study in a Bible college, to go and be a missionary, to go and preach the gospel, to go and talk to someone about Jesus Christ, but that opportunity is not guaranteed to always be there.

And so we’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities. Secondly, we find that he responded to the call. Now in 2 Timothy chapter number 1 and verse number 9, the Bible says, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

And so here this wonderful calling before the world even began, God knew that there are some in this room that he is going to call and give you a specific call, something you’re supposed to do, and it’s an awesome opportunity. But there’s something you need to do. You must reject all of the obstacles.

You see, Hebrews chapter number 12, verses 1 and 2 says this, Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race which is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the

throne of God.

If anyone in history had a reason to say, no, I can’t, that there’s an obstacle that’s too great, it would have been our Lord Jesus Christ. But he laid all that aside. He said, no obstacle is too great because of my desire to see mankind come to know the Father as their Father, that they might be saved.

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And so first of all, we need to be willing to sacrifice. My wife was a preacher’s daughter.

Some of you may be able to relate to her story. Growing up, their family quite often weren’t sure where they would get their next meal. They lived in a very small community.

Their church was not very large. His salary was very low. As a matter of fact, while he was receiving the salary of a pastor, he was also on welfare.

My wife many times remembers as a child, you know, just being able to have a little bit of cheese. That was wonderful. And for those of you here in Wisconsin, I mean, can you imagine living without cheese?

That would just be a total sacrifice. But when my wife was 13 years old, she went forward and she told the Lord, Lord, I’m willing to sacrifice everything. I’m willing to sacrifice everything for the privilege of serving you.

Oh, my wife is an amazing lady. I wish you could meet her. I’ll never forget the day that I was in Mongolia.

And I called her and I said, Sweetheart, I think God’s redirecting our steps. I said, I think God is going to send us to Mongolia. And I think it’s going to be fairly soon.

And I said, Sweetheart, I just wanted you to know about this. And she said, oh, praise the Lord. She said, I’ve been praying for God to show us his will.

She said, I’ll start packing the suitcases in another few minutes. Within two and a half months, almost three months, from that phone call, we were living in Mongolia. How many ladies would be willing to pack up your house and leave everything and live in Mongolia three months from now?

You think about that. She decided when she was 13 that she was going to sacrifice anything God asked. And so the first step to having a willing heart is to be willing to sacrifice.

But secondly, not only did Matthew have a heart willing to sacrifice, he was also willing to follow. Notice what it says in verse number 28. It says, and he left all, rose up, and followed him.

You see, following Christ means that we’re going to have a new way of living. Now, before, every day when Matthew would get up, he’d go and he’d probably straighten his chair and he’d try to figure out, you know, exactly where the chair needed to be and make sure that it was visible and that the table was right. And he couldn’t forget the stamp, you know, to be able to stamp and say it had been paid.

Everything had to be just right and he had to have his robes all right and everything was great. But now he’s following Jesus and everything’s changed. He doesn’t have to worry about the chair or the table or the stamp.

He doesn’t have to worry about any of those things. Now he only has to worry about following Jesus. What does it mean exactly to follow Jesus?

Well, I’m sure there’s a much better definition than this one, but I just wrote down 12 things. We probably could have written about 150, but just listen to these 12 very quickly. First of all, following Jesus means to obey the will of God.

Secondly, to know the heart of God. Third, to trust in the plan of God. Fourth, to depend on the provision of God.

Fifth, to remain in the presence of God. Sixth, to listen to the voice of God. Seventh, to believe in the goodness of God.

Eighth, to communicate the message of God. Nine, to live for the glory of God. Ten, to wait on the coming of God.

Eleven, to give to the program of God. And twelve, to meditate on the word of God. You see, when you come to follow Christ, your life changes.

You are a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new.

You are not the same person that you were before. You must be willing to follow. This means you’re going to have a new focus on what is important in life.

Here, now Matthew, when he got up in the morning, the first thing he needed to look for was, where’s Jesus? By the way, first thing you and I ought to do every morning is wake up and say, where’s Jesus? That’s where I need to be.

What’s Jesus doing? That’s what I want to be involved in. What’s Jesus saying?

That’s what I want to listen to. You see, that’s what we need to be doing. If we’re going to follow Christ, we need to be paying attention to him and what’s important to him.

Matthew not only was willing to sacrifice, he was willing to follow. But third, he was willing to serve. Look at verse number 29, please.

Oh, this is an amazing part of the story. In Luke 5, 29, we read, And Levi made him, that is Jesus, a great feast in his own house, that is Levi or Matthew’s house. And there was a great company.

That is a very large group of people, kind of like there is here tonight. A large company of publicans. These are other tax collectors.

All the tax collectors around that area, they all came. They couldn’t believe what was going on. And not only that, not only the publicans, it says, and of others that sat down with them.

Now, this great feast, I want you to notice that it’s a great feast and a great company. When you have a great company, that’s a large group of people, and then you have a great feast, most likely it’s going to be Baptist, okay? It’s just, you know, we Baptists like to have great feasts.

On Monday night, right here in this church, I’m so sorry for those of you that didn’t come in until tonight, Monday night, every room in this, I think this whole building had food. It was amazing. We had food from all over the world.

We had more food than we knew what to do with. I went around and I ate. I came here this week.

I was thin. But, you know, it’s just been fantastic. It’s just been fantastic.

My wife won’t recognize me, I’m sure. But that’s what happened here with Matthew. And so Matthew comes in and he has this great feast and all this great company of people.

And everyone’s coming together and they’re saying, well, why did he do this? He wanted his friends to get to know Jesus. He wanted to say to his friends, listen, here’s a man who’s changed my life.

I’m now following him. Guess what? I need you guys to know him as well.

I want you to know who my friend is. I want you to know the one who’s changed my life. I want you to know the one who I’m going to follow the rest of my days.

I want you to understand why I left that desk and why I left that chair and why I left that little stamp and why I’m never looking back at that again and why I’m following Jesus. Can I tell you, one of the greatest things you can do for your friends is to try to bring them together and introduce them to Jesus. Just tell them about Jesus.

Just show them what Jesus has done in your life. Just bring them all together. Give them some food so that they’ll come.

I mean, you offer food and people are going to come. That’s the whole thing, you know, about this week. We’ve had lots of good food, so lots of people came.

It’s been wonderful. And you’re going to love the next few days, I’m sure. But listen, listen to this.

When Matthew invited them, what he was showing was that he was willing to serve. Can I tell you that unless you’re willing to serve others, you’re not really willing to serve God. Because the way you serve God is through serving others.

And who did he serve? He served the people that society rejected. He served the people that nobody else wanted to eat with.

He served the people that everybody else thought were crazy. And he invited them and he said, listen, you, please come to my house. I’m going to give you the best I’ve got.

He’d already left behind his business. Now he’s taken everything else he’s had and he’s spent all this money on all this food. I mean, can you imagine what he had?

All the food. Boy, I would have loved to have been there. He probably had pepperoni pizza and hamburgers piled high with cheese.

I mean, he probably had, I mean, you just name it. He had it there. Well, they didn’t have cheeseburgers back then because they were Jewish, but that’s another story for another day.

He wanted his friends to know the Lord. And so he prepared this great banquet. And he had all these people come together because he was willing to serve.

We must be willing to serve. This teaches us that here Matthew was willing to give up everything he had, everything. Follow Christ, serve others.

This banquet permitted his friends to get to know the same Christ that he had gotten to know. In Matthew chapter number 9 and verse number 2, a paralytic man was taken to Jesus. In Matthew chapter 19 and verse number 13, children are taken before Jesus.

In John chapter number 1 and verse number 42, Peter goes and finds Andrew. Pardon me, Andrew goes and finds Peter and takes him to Jesus. Who have you taken to Jesus?

Who are you willing to take to Jesus? Do you have a willing heart? See, Matthew had a willing heart.

He proved it. He was in the middle of a regular day, and this visit by Jesus was totally unexpected. As far as I can read in Scripture, it was totally unplanned.

He went that day to work not thinking what was going to happen by the end of the day. Just like some of you have come into this room, not necessarily planning to make any major decisions tonight, But it may be that God’s calling out to you and just saying, follow me. Follow me.

Follow me. There was once a missionary from a foreign land who went to Lubbock, Texas. He preached in a little country church there in Lubbock.

And that night he made the appeal. He requested that the church would pray for him. He asked that the church would consider sending laborers to the mission field to help him.

He desperately needed help. He asked also for some financial needs that their ministry had. And so the pastor that evening felt compelled of the Lord to try to take up an offering.

He went and got an offering plate. He took the offering plate and he took it down to the front of the church. and he actually put it up here on the little table, just like that.

And after he put that offering plate there, he invited people to come up and to give something sacrificial to try to help the missionary. While he was there in the midst of receiving some funds and things had come in and others were walking up to the front and they were looking at the offering plate and they were giving sacrificially to try to help the work. A little girl came up.

Oh, she’s just eight years old. A little girl who, from what I understand, her name was Loretta. And Loretta came up to the front and she asked the pastor to lean down.

And so he leaned down and she said, I have nothing to give. Could I give myself? Could I give myself?

I have nothing to give. Could I give myself? So the pastor took the little girl and he raised her up and he put her inside the offering plate.

And he pointed out at them. And he said, this girl has given her life to serve God. Could we see that picture, please?

we’re waiting on that one not that one the picture at the end hold on we got another picture we have a picture at the end there guys can you show us that picture well I’ll tell you about it you’ll see an older man it’s a black and white picture the picture was taken in 1953 The little girl is standing here. Her name is Loretta Norton. She later on married a missionary with the last name of Sloan.

They went to Brazil, and for over 40 years they served the Lord. They retired. Her husband has since passed away.

She’s living in Virginia. The reason I know that story is because the pastor who picked up that little girl and set her inside the offering plate? He was my grandfather, Dr.

Ralph McCoy. What I’m asking you today is this. Here’s an offering plate.

All this week we’ve been reading from Isaiah chapter number 6 and verse number 8. And the Bible says, whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

Then said I, here am I.

send me I want to ask you a question would you say that your heart is willing willing to do anything that God wants you to do willing to serve God wherever that is maybe you’ve never made that decision you’ve never told the Lord that you’d do whatever he wanted you to do maybe you need to be willing to sacrifice whatever it is that would hinder you from serving God maybe it’s sacrificing a boyfriend or a girlfriend maybe it’s sacrificing fears maybe it’s sacrificing bitterness or

disappointment what I’m asking you tonight is would you be willing to sacrifice?

Would you be willing to follow? To follow Christ means you’ll need to follow him for the rest of your life. But if you follow Christ, I can tell you it’s the greatest thing you’ll ever do.