Lech Acharai

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Well, good morning. My name is Todd, and if I have not yet met you, I just want to introduce myself and let you know my wife Jennifer and I, we've been attending here for about six months or so. It's an honor, it's a privilege to be asked to do this, to give John a break. Just so you know a little background, actually John and I just learned this this morning. He went to Concordia College in Ann Arbor the exact same time I went to Concordia College in River Forest. He went to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis the exact same time I went to Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Graduated the same years, and our paths have never crossed. We just kind of talked about that this morning, but I feel like they have, and we're brothers, so that's the main thing. But it is an honor to be here to give John a break, and as I said, graduated from Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, pastored churches in Central Louisiana, East Tennessee, South Suburban Detroit area, and then returned back to my hometown of Decatur, Illinois. Was in ministry till 2015, stepped away from that, served in two social service agencies in Decatur before then moving down here almost four years ago to manage a condo association down on Fort Myers Beach. And yes, we were here for Ian, and yes, we lost it all in Ian, but we've since moved. Our place down on the beach is almost done, but we bought another condo off Island Park Road, and I've gotten to meet some wonderful people. Some were here with me this morning, and we found Thrive. And I want you to know that how grateful Jennifer and I are to have this family. You came into our lives at exactly the right time, and we love this place. You have welcomed us, and not only welcomed us, but you have embraced us as part of this family. So thank you, and it's an honor and a privilege to be not only up here, but to be out there each and every Sunday. So that's enough of that. Here's where I want to go this morning. Back in 2015, I had a heart attack. Now, I hate the word heart attack. I like to call it a cardiac event. Heart attack is so violent, you know. Cardiac event sounds better. And anyway, so as a result of that, Jennifer and I decided we needed to do something to get healthy. And we found a program in Decatur called Learn to Run, and it's a 10-week program that will take you from literally sitting on the couch to, in 10 weeks, you progressively build up the amount of time that you walk, run, walk, run, until after 10 weeks, if you stick with the program, you'll be able to walk or run for 30 minutes without stopping. And we did that, and we enjoyed it. And so then the next year, we went back as volunteers and mentors to help other people, other new beginner runners, so they could do the same thing as well. And one of the things that I loved to do was, by this time, I wasn't pastoring anymore, but I loved encouraging people in that situation to say to them, as I'm running along with them, I believe in you. You can do this. Don't give up. Don't quit. Keep going. Even if you got to stop and walk, keep going. Don't give up. And what is amazing is to see the transformation in people of what they once thought was impossible, that they're actually able to do. They just needed somebody to believe that they could do it. That's what I want to talk about this morning. Two words that Jesus would have said to his disciples. The words in Hebrew are, Lech Aharai. Lech Aharai. What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you in just a minute. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time, for this place. We thank you for the opportunity to gather around your word and to hear what you have to say. Lord, I pray that each person in here, not one of us is here by accident, but by your sovereign design. And I pray, Lord, that you will open hearts, keep the distractions away, and allow people to hear what you say, whether I say it or not. That's my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. We're in Matthew 4, and we're at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry when he's kind of going around the countryside gathering disciples. Or in Hebrew, it would be called Talmudim. He's gathering disciples into his ministry. And so we start in Matthew 4, and just before I read it, just to say, one thing we have to be very careful when we open up God's Word is that sometimes, well, put it this way, we have to remember that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi who lived in a Jewish part of the world, in a very Jewish culture, and everything around them was Jewish. And I think if we forget that sometimes, if we rip Jesus out of context, we can make him, A, say things maybe he didn't say, or B, lose the power behind what's really going on. And that's what I want to try to do this morning, is give you some background into what was going on and why this event is so amazing. Matthew 4, we start at verse 18. Word...