Mission Faithwalk

                 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said (Matthew 5:2-3) And what He said is well known to us all as The Sermon on the Mount. Ministry involves communication. There are ways our ability to speak to others can be improved, but mostly, it involves two things. Love and practice. The love part includes caring enough to have something to say that will help them. Sometimes, we confuse helping them with making ourselves feel superior. They aren’t the same. In this sermon, Jesus doesn’t single out anyone. He’s talking to people, but He’s not exactly talking about people. He’s talking more about human conditions. This doesn’t mean that He never takes anyone to task, but more often than not, He acts as a teacher, not a judge. There are consequences to not correcting an error, but there is time in which to do so. That time is a...

                 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”   As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him… Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.  (Matthew 4:17-20 & 23) And today, we come to the crux of the matter. Jesus returned from His time in the desert and began to preach (v 17). He called disciples (actually verses 18-22, but I only shared 18-20). He traveled, taught, marketed (advertised the kingdom), and healed. One thing all those ...

                 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) This wasn’t the passage I had in mind for today, but it’s the one shared by my Bible platform, and let’s just say that it’s a concept that I want to be (and that I hope is ) central to my life. According to Jesus, it’s half of the greatest commandment. If we’re to have a mission in our lives, this is it. If we’re to have a ministry, this is its foundation and core. Having said that, I have to return to my “no magic” idea. Functionally, “god” refers to anything that provides the foundation of our lives and beliefs. This means not all gods have to be personal. Science can be a god. Self can be (and very often is) a god. And even if you hate that god, if you don’t turn to another god, you’re still loving that god because your a...

                 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.   After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (Matthew 4:1-3) As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, (Galatians 4:13) Perhaps, because He is Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus’s calendar had written across the forty days immediately after His baptism, “Forty Days Temptation.” Maybe He knew exactly what was coming. Most of us don’t expect that when we have taken on some sort of ministry, the next seven days, weeks, months, or years will be spent uncomfortably wandering around, hungry, and under attack. What does any of that have to do with ministering? How are we to serve God or help anyone else if we’re sick, homeless, poor, improperly educ...

            Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”         Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. (Matthew 3:13-15)   Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:    “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. (Matthew 23:1-3)   “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:7)   Jesus’ ministry didn’t start off with a fireworks demonstration signaling the start of something new and different. His life started ...

                   In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea   and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”    This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,     make straight paths for him.’” (Matthew 3:1-3) Continuing to think about ministry, today’s passage doesn’t use the word, but it describes what John the Baptist did. He fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3. He prepared the way for Jesus. This wasn’t a joyous task, necessarily. His job was to call people to repentance. There would be joy over those who repented, but “Repent” just isn’t a happy message. “The kingdom of heaven coming near” might be seen as either good or bad. It certainly would mean changes in the status quo. The point is that our ministries may not be what we expect them to ...