Balancing Ministry N' Work

The Bible shows us that Jesus fed thousands, twice. Peter preached, and three thousand people were added to the church in a single day. The Great Commission tells us: Matthew 28:18-20 “ 18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples  of  all nations, baptizing  them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” We are to go and make disciples of all nations. We are also familiar with Jesus’ final command before He ascended to be with the Father. Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We need to witness to our community, our state, country, and the rest of the world. Sometimes when yo...

From Peter faltering when walking on water we learned that we need to keep our focus on Jesus. Does not mean that our wind and waves will stop hitting up, but it does mean that when we walk with Jesus, He will give us the peace, strength, wisdom, courage, and more when we need it. Our focus is to be on Jesus. From the Transfiguration we saw that Jesus is not like anyone else. On that mountain the disciples witnessed Jesus to be Transfigured into His glorified body. If that was not enough, our Father spoke from heaven declaring Jesus as His beloved Son, whom He was well pleased with, stating that He is the Chosen one and we need to listen to Him. Then Scripture showed us that the Almighty humbly returned to His human form and brought comfort to His disciples. Touching them and telling them to ‘Get up; don’t be afraid.’ The Chosen One of God, the King of Kings, willingly gets close and personal with those who follow Him. Talk about Love. The disciples witnessed a lot of things, but...

Last week we looked at how Peter stepped out of the boat and briefly walked on water, until the wind and waves go the best of him. Even after we made the choice to follow Jesus we have times of doubt, fear, insecurity, and lostness. The wind and waves are distracting and can tempt us to take our focus off or our Lord and move it onto our problems. We need to keep our focus on Jesus who will bring the needed calm and lift us up and help us to walk as if we are on solid ground. The wind and waves will not disappear, but when we are walking with Jesus our courage, strength, peace, joy, and so much more comes from Him. When going through the Gospels you see some repetition of what it tells us, the events themselves, but they are not exact copies. The differences could be due to who wrote the letter or who it was written to. Could have something to do with how the author remembered the events. Don’t get me wrong, all of Scripture is God breathed meaning that every word written was given ...

Late last year as we headed into Christmas we started talking about the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus. This morning will be the 25 th message in the series. Might sound like a lot of messages, but when you flip through the Gospels it feels like we are barely scratching the surface. We could easily spend a couple of years going through each of the Gospels. As it looks today, we will spend the rest of the year looking at the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus and still only hit the highlights. This morning we will be continuing our series in Matthew 14. Matthew 14:22-23 “ 22  Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23  After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Well into the night, he was there alone.” Jesus had tried to withdraw to a remote place earlier in the chapter, but the crowds followed Him. He healed the sick and then took 5 loaves...