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Commissioning Service
The Institute
May 18, 2016
LEVI IN THE PITS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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We can be sure that Levi was a
disappointment to his family and his fellow Jews in the community
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After all, he was a Jew working
for the occupying Romans and extorting taxes from his own people
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As member of tribe of Levi he’d
have been raised 2 serve in Temple or trained in SS 2B be scribe
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Great expectations all down drain
4 he is defiled, despised, disillusioned … a disappointment
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Levi has nothing left to commend
himself to the Lord. His is a wrecked and ruined life
THE POWER OF GRACE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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It’s through such a life that
Jesus passes and speaks a simple phrase, “Follow
Me!”
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This is a present tense command
and literally means “Be following Me”
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It is a call for Levi to leave
his old life behind and begin a new life of letting Jesus lead
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One wonders why Jesus would have
any use for a man like this?
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Only 1 word can answer that
question —grace!
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In spite of his occupation and lifestyle,
his failures and his sins, J loves Levi and calls him to a new life
THRU PRESENCE OF JESUS +++++++++++++++++++++++++
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The transformation in person from
Levi 2 Matthew is real. Cause of it, the grace, is elusive
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It’s important 2 reason back 2 cause
from effect, from new life back 2 grace that brings it about
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And what it tells us is that no
one is beyond hope
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Most people in Capernaum had
given up on Levi
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The good religious folk snubbed
him as they passed by and wrote him off as a lost cause
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J knows how 2 reach a person,
open the person 2 grace, & watch transformation take place
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Even those who loved Levi were
helpless 2 save him, 2 free him, but J thru grace could
APPLICATION
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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It doesn’t take much to see that
same grace operative in lives of David, Frank and Andrew
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Each w/ different failings, w/
different potentials, but same J entering their lives over past months
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Same grace transforming from
Levis 2 Matthews
CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Yes, there is cause for
celebration!
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