Keith Battle - Divine Interruptions - Part 1

I’ve chosen for a subject this weekend «Divine Interruptions» —leave your living. Leave your living; just put it in the chat right now for somebody I’m on assignment to go after, or elbow someone near you, or point to them and say, «It might be time for you to leave your living.» Mmm, it has been determined by modern historians that what we call the «Great Resignation» began somewhere in the early part of 2021. In fact, statistics show that, out of seemingly nowhere, this phenomenon must be connected to the pandemic and people having a chance to reassess their lives and reevaluate what they truly want out of life. Being in a global pandemic makes you understand your own fragility, and it also kind of makes you focus on what you really want to do, what you no longer want to put up with, and what you’re tired of—getting up every morning, driving through traffic, getting on the metro, or logging in from your pajamas. I still don’t like it, even if I’m telecommuting to it. Something about it caused what we’re calling the «Great Resignation,» so much so that over 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August of 2021. If you think it was a coincidence, in September of the same year, over 4.2 million people in America quit their jobs—a quick exit. It’s interesting because people are saying, «I don’t want to do this anymore,» some without even knowing what is next, just knowing they can’t continue this way. Very interesting, in the times we live in, that’s the kind of world we inhabit. People are keeping their resumes updated, their LinkedIn profiles current; they are keeping their eyes and ears open, keeping possibilities available. There are many people I know who don’t stay in jobs long anyway—they get a job, and as soon as they can find something better, they move. They move. That’s the world we live in, but that was not the world in which the text in Matthew chapter four was written. There were few career opportunities; there wasn’t a prolific job market—no, no, no. You couldn’t just shift careers like that. If you were a fisherman, your son was going to be a fisherman, and his son would be a fisherman. The whole workforce was composed of men; they had no women in the workforce—a 100% male workforce. Most families had family enterprises. If your grandfather was a shepherd, then you were going to be a shepherd, and your son would be a shepherd. If you were in a family of blacksmiths, that’s what they did. Joseph was a carpenter, so Jesus was a carpenter. That’s how it went. There was an expectation and an understanding that if you grew up in the house of a worker and there was a certain type of work they did, you as a son would go into that line of work. That is what makes this text so stunning: the fact that these four men—I hope you didn’t miss it—didn’t just leave their jobs; they left their family business. There’s now a gap in the flow of what will happen to you if you leave. One of them, two of them left their father on the boat. Y’all missed the whole point—this is a disruption! This is an enormous moment; this is a divine interruption. In fact, there are some of you listening to me right now, some of you who already know that God sent me to talk to you. Because, see, not only did it start in 2021, but I can prophesy to you that many of you who are listening to me today in 2022 are going to leave your living. It’s coming; it’s coming; it’s coming! You already feel it, you already know it; you’ve already been getting itchy, feeling it, already a little discouraged. You’ve been counting your coins and thinking, «I don’t want to do this anymore; I’d rather do this.» I feel a call—a call that’s making you do something that doesn’t even make economic sense. You’re already having meetings with your spouse and your significant other, saying, «Would you support me if I did this?» Y’all aren’t ready. Would you support me if I did? There is a movement happening right now, and it’s not because of the Great Resignation. That’s not your thing. You’re not leaving because of that; you’re leaving because of a divine interruption. God is calling you; He’s calling you; He’s calling you. To something that doesn’t even make sense, He’s calling you to it, and it will interrupt your life. Sometimes, it takes an interruption from God to make you really contemplate, «Do I really want to do this anymore, or do I want to do what God has called me to do?» There’s so much in this brief, pregnant passage of scripture; I don’t want to miss any of it. So, let me do it like this: let me just start with what I see in the passage. The first thing I want to highlight is that Jesus was going down the shore. Yeah, in verse 18, He is going ashore, and as He’s going up ashore, I want to talk to people right now—first of all, who…