Heard a really good teaching Sunday. In it, the pastor noted we should know where God is. We should know Him in our hearts. In requesting Him to hear us, this pastor noted that most people use God as their Genie in the bottle. Rub it three times for your wish and automatically you have your wish. For most they do not see His Word first. They seek their flesh comfort. A desire to those great nails with decorations or maybe that Snap Benefit when you should work first to be paid. This pastor had silence in the room of said believers. You could hear a pin drop in that big room filled with a captive audience.
People felt isolated during the Covid-19 disease. And today there is something else causing the division. Isolating oneself is not separating from the problem. It goes with you everywhere you go. In this we should see that it is about having faith in God or about having faith in something else. Is it a benefit to stand opposite God and make a demand about something you think you might need?
God is in Light. He reveals light and if any darkness in us is found, He waits on us to move to His place.
When Matthew is Called: Luke 5:27-32 NKJV After these things He went out
and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to
him, “Follow Me.” 28 So he left all, rose up and
followed Him. 29 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in
his own house. And there were a great
number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. 30
And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? 31 Jesus answered
and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those
who are sick. 32 “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance.”
1. In this passage Levi is the given
name of Matthew, but God changed his name to Matthew.
2. The sinner and the tax collectors
were not to be taught the word of God; where the unclean before the boundary lines of
the Jews
3. Jesus was not going to bars to look for sinners….He was invited to fancy meat bearing meals..
Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a
man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, “Follow Me.” So
he arose & followed Him. 10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the
table in the house, that behold many tax collectors
and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And
when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher
eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
1. This passage reveals Jesus did not
go find the tax collectors or sinners. They came to where He was. He asked
Matthew to follow Him…
2. He was in a house, seated! ….and
they came to Him
Matthew 9:12
When Jesus heard that, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick. 13 “But go and
learn what this means: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” For I did not
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’
This Matthew was held in an isolation. He was the tax collector. He was kept in a place where he could and would implement the tax law for Rome. Many of us today are bunched together and maybe in an unclean place to hear the rants of angry people and know the fruit is not good for anything! Huddling with others as to snap benefits can produce a group of lazy people. Making demands on others and you are not a child that represents a really foolish people.
But Jesus came along. : Follow Me. And then Matthew followed Him. What is interesting is the truth that sinners came, looking and were found with Jesus. He came to lead people into repentance of sins!
Jesus had called Matthew to be acquainted with tax
collectors and reveal to the religious sect that they were included in the
kingdom of God!
1. As
Matthew had invited Jesus to eat at his house, others would come as well. And surely some would follow
Christ. I was thinking today after hearing a Michael Jackson Movie has been made and of the nephew who made it. In reflecting on that family, most certainly Michael Jackson had the talent! Enough said for now, please!
2. The
true grace will not eat its morsels alone but will always invite
others! Our grace from God is probably running out. In this the 250 year celebration for this nation: that is seven 50 year Jubilees we read in the Bible. We have been a people more about things than about God Himself. Will something catastrophic happen this summer? We shall see!
3. Matthew
the tax collector invited the fishermen who were follower’s of Jesus and the publicans as well….that
those requiring the Healer would find the proper place where aid is given. They would find healing in Jesus/
4. For where Jesus is: aid is given not to those in health but those
needing
Mercy….the beauty of grace in the place of misery
and pain.
5. “I came not to call the righteous ...] No
human beings are by nature righteous, Ps 14:3; Rom 1:18-32; 3:10-18. The
Pharisees, however, "pretended" to be righteous
6. Christ
Jesus affirmed that his proper and only business was to call to repentance such
people as he was now with. He came to seek and save such, and it was his
"proper business," therefore, to associate with them.
Revelation 21:5-8 NKJV then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold I make all things new." And said to me, "Write for these words are true and faithful." 6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. " I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. " 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Unbelief is faithlessness! Cowardly acting is he who lacks courage! Philippians 4:6 tell you and I to not "Be anxious for nothing." To have fear, worry, anxiety, or forebodings question God's goodness and His loving care. Rather to giving in to "fear" we are to choose and action to believe God and His love. If we believe in the depth of the love of God ( John 17:23) and Christ ( John 15:13) have for us, believing those words, faith in that perfect love will cast out fear we see in 1 John 4:18.
Doubting that God can feed you or find you a new position in this time period only proves you are the faithless. It is our doubting Gods love for us that is at the core of the sin of faithlessness. This was seen in the characteristics of our ancestors, ancient Israel.
People of those early days of Israel proved their faithlessness when asking Moses, "is the Lord going to take care of us or not?" (Exodus 17:7) It is sobering to consider the fate of the fearful and unbelieving and the rank they are given in the list we have above in Revelation 21:8. Return to Him in fellowship. Return to Him in knowing Him intimately. Faith in Him is light and life. We are encouraged to choose life and not the handout. (choose life: Deuteronomy 30:19.
Isolation Jesus saw at the beginning of His ministry. Holy Spirit took Him out to be tested by the devil. And He came through as we saw recently in Luke 4. Many will be tested in this hour and will we choose life in God? Will we choose faithful trust in Him? For we should remember He can cast both body and soul into hell. God is good and He is the faithful one. Pay attention to His words of life in the Bible. To fix your eyes on the daily T.V. news is keeping sick plots of men before you. Be rich in the Lord and in the power of His might. Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
“Love for God is obedience; love for God is holiness. To love
God and to love man is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and this is
salvation.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
“It is not great faith,
but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in the
Christ in whom faith trusts...It is not the measure of faith, but the sincerity
of faith, which is the point to be considered.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
“I would do many things to please my friends, but to go to hell to please them is more than I would venture. It may be very well to do this and that for good fellowship, but it will never do to lose the friendship of God in order to keep on good terms with men.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
Without our heart being washed by the word of God, we never meet the standards to operate in godly integrity. . God, with our cooperation through faith, is ultimately the Creator of a pure heart in us, but it is a protracted process achieved by imparting a holy nature by His Spirit. This unites us with a holy Christ, with whom we fellowship, washing us in the blood of the Lamb so that with His aid we can mortify the flesh and live toward God, giving Him first priority in everything.
Purity of desires, motives, and intents should characterize the child of God. We need to examine ourselves, searching diligently whether we have freed ourselves from the dominion of hypocrisy or are we still isolated from God?
Teaching at: Voice of Prayer
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