Whether you are here in person or engaging from home, we are thankful you have chosen to worship with us today. If it is your first time, welcome! we would love to get to know you better. Would you consider filling out our Next Steps card and let us know you stopped by?

At Grace Family we focus our worship on Sunday to impact our lives every other day of the week as well. We also believe no one is perfect but everyone is welcome to worship God with us. So, no matter where you're from, what you've done, or what your week has been like, let's worship God and learn from His word together today.

Mark 2:13-14

"13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him."

A tax collector would be the equivalent of a corrupt IRS agent.

Tax Collectors

- Traitors to their people and nation.

- Grouped with thieves and murderers.

- Banned from the synagogue.

- Jewish people were allowed to lie to tax collectors.

To everyone else Matthew was a lost cause.

To Jesus, Matthew had potential.

Mark 2:15

"15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)"

Matthew drops his old life and celebrates his new life.

People who just decided to follow Jesus are always more likely to share Jesus.

Mark 2:16

"But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees[b] saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?[c]”

περικάθαρμα (perikatharma)

“scum of the earth”

something wiped away and thrown out”

“worthless, disposable, offensive”

Who fits this category for you?

Mark 2:17

"When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

You can think you are healthy but you know when you are sick.

Jesus came to find people who knew they needed him. 

Mark 2:18-20

"18 Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?” 19 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. 20 But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast."

The presence of Jesus should be a celebration!

"Grumpy Christian" should be an oxymoron.

Mark 2:21-22

"21 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. 22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

Jesus came to bring something new, not just fix something that was old.

2 Corinthians 5:17

When you find Jesus you find a new way of life.

Mark 2:23-24

"23 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

The Pharisees had a rule for every rule.

Ex: the 1,999 step rule.

Mark 2:25-26

"25 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 26 He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”"

It's not the letter of the law that matters but the Spirit behind the law.

Mark 2:27-28

:27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”"

The sabbath is a gift to enjoy, not just a rule to follow.

Rest is not the reward we get for working hard. It's the reset we need to work well.

What is your friend group like?

What is your life like because of Jesus?

What is your sabbath like?

Don't just see the rules, see the heart of God.

Use the space below to ask a question and one of our pastors will get back to you!

Every week we spend time praying for your requests at our staff meeting. Submit your request below and we will be sure to pray for you this week!