Feb. 5, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
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| Hi and welcome back to another God's Grace is Greater segment. | |
| Today we're doing a very special look in Luke chapter 9. | |
| We're going to be covering the first six verses there about Jesus sending out his 12 disciples to go do great miracles in his name. | |
| And we're going to talk about what we can learn from that in our lives today and how that could apply. | |
| And I hope you guys are ready for it. | |
| But just a quick note to everybody watching over on YouTube, I want to thank you for joining me. | |
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| I'd appreciate that. | |
| But With that being said, I want to get right into our God's Grace is Greater. | |
| We're going to be going into Luke chapter 9, verse 1 through 6, and we're picking up right where we left off, which yesterday we talked about Essentially how Jesus was having this amazing healing that he had performed on a woman who had been suffering for over a decade from a medical affliction, and he healed her by her faith, and he also healed the daughter of Jairus by his faith. | |
| And what we learned in that lesson was that Jesus was able to do great things by our faith in him, right? | |
| It was not only his power in God, but he told us in no uncertain terms that it was our faith that allowed us to find healing with him and to find favor and to find all of these things. | |
| By God's grace, of course, but it was through faith that these things happened for those who believed. | |
| And I thought that was a beautiful story, and I shared that yesterday. | |
| And today we're going from there, which is the end of chapter 8, into the beginning of chapter 9, which is talking about this incredible moment where Jesus sends out his 12 disciples to go do more miracles in his name. | |
| And it's another testament of faith, but it's also an interesting lesson in what Jesus teaches us to do with those who are unbelievers, who don't want to believe and don't want to hear the message of the gospel. | |
| So let's just read these verses, and then we'll talk about it. | |
| It says here... | |
| Chapter 9, verse 1 through 6, it says, No walking stick, no traveling bag, no bread, no money, and don't take an extra shirt. | |
| Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. | |
| If they do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as testimony against them. | |
| So they went out and traveled from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere. | |
| Now, it's a short set of verses. | |
| It's not very long, but there is so much packed in here. | |
| And we've talked about this in previous Gospels where we dive into this same kind of story, especially in Mark. | |
| But this, or the same recount of the same historical event in Mark and Matthew, this is fascinating. | |
| I love understanding this even more. | |
| And let's just break down what happens here, right? | |
| He has his 12 disciples there with him. | |
| And they've been watching him and learning from him and they've been witnessing these miracles and these incredible feats that were supernatural in nature. | |
| He was healing the sick. | |
| He was doing things that were not physically possible for any human, really. | |
| And he was essentially showing them his power that he had been given through his Father, our Father in Heaven, God, and his Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. | |
| So... | |
| This is an incredible sequence of events here. | |
| He summons his disciples and he gives them power and authority. | |
| Now, power and authority is pretty simple. | |
| It's not really a complex term for most to understand. | |
| He gave them not only the power to do it, but the authority. | |
| And I think the authority is what's more important to take away from it. | |
| Because the power is something that, you know... | |
| Can be, I guess, given, but the authority is something that God has to put on others, right? | |
| And he puts this authority on them to go out and to have authority over demons and the power to heal diseases. | |
| Now, this is an incredible moment for them, but he then sends them out, and we learn in other verses, it's, I guess, in sets of two, so six groups of two, there are twelve disciples, and he sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal the sick. | |
| But what does he tell them? | |
| There's a little caveat he gives them. | |
| He gives them power and authority from heaven, and he tells them, though, one thing. | |
| He says, don't take anything with you. | |
| Take nothing for the road. | |
| No walking stick, no traveling bag, no bread. | |
| So no food, no money, no traveling stick, which would be to fend off robbers and to fend off anything that's trying to harm you and to help you travel. | |
| No extra shirt, which was customary to bring at least some extra clothes. | |
| Could you imagine if you just walked to another city from where you are with nothing? | |
| No food, no money, no bag with all of your things in it, no extra even clothing. | |
| Maybe it's a little chilly out and you don't even have anything like that. | |
| But he says this, basically to depend on others for what you need. | |
| He says, whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. | |
| He's telling them not to just go to one house and stay because the hospitality is really what they were known for in that time period and the people of those days were very well known for having very good hospitality, if you will. | |
| But he gives them another set of instructions. | |
| He says, if you are not welcome, Shake the dust off of your feet as a testimony against them. | |
| Now, his disciples do these great miracles, and they go out and perform great feats in Jesus' name, and they heal people, all with the authority and power given to them by Jesus through God in this incredible exchange. | |
| And they go out with the faith in Jesus that they will be able to do this. | |
| Could you imagine, even if you had seen Jesus doing it, the idea that you are going to be imparted with some sort of authority from God to heal others and do great things in their name? | |
| You know, they always talk about in the Gospels here about the disciples, they fought a lot. | |
| They were like a bunch of brothers. | |
| Brothers, if you ever watch siblings, they tend to have disagreements from time to time, to put it mildly. | |
| Could you imagine the doubt, the disagreement, the fear, the panic, the wonder, the excitement, everything mixed into one ball of emotion that they were feeling when they were sent out in this way? | |
| But then on top of that, what did Jesus ask for in return? | |
| I think it's pretty self-explanatory. | |
| He asked for faith. | |
| He's sending them out with nothing. | |
| No food. | |
| No money. | |
| So he's asking them to have faith that what he's giving them will be enough. | |
| Now isn't that something you and I need to have more of in our lives? | |
| Faith. | |
| That no matter what, God will be with us. | |
| I know me, in my life, you know, there are times where it seems like there's great abundance and at times it feels like I've lost everything and there's nothing that's going right. | |
| In both times of great abundance and times where there's not as much as I would like or hope, I've noticed that there's one thing that I do, that I can do, that helps me thrive. | |
| Not only be thankful, but to find peace in my heart. | |
| And that is trust in the Lord and have faith. | |
| Because I know that this world's going to come to an end. | |
| I know that every day is not going to be sunshine and rainbows. | |
| I know that every time I need something God has provided, though, And I hope God's done that with you. | |
| I mean, think about it. | |
| Even in your lowest and worst place, has God not provided for you to still be here? | |
| Still be breathing with us now, today? | |
| Now you may be going through that dark place right now. | |
| You may be facing some indescribable adversity that you can't even fathom or comprehend, but God's still there with you and you're still here. | |
| And Another message that I think that we can take away from this, beside the fact that, you know, you have to have the faith of the disciples as they were sent out into the world with nothing to do great things on God's behalf, we should not only want to have that faith, but we should have discernment, right? | |
| And what discernment does he give the disciples? | |
| Well, he tells them, if you're not welcome when you leave the town, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. | |
| Now, back in those days, shaking the dust off your sandal was, I believe, a form of basically saying a curse on those people, right? | |
| Saying, you know... | |
| It was a form of, I guess, disrespect, but also a form of saying that these people have... | |
| I'm not going to worry about these people because they have rejected me, essentially, I guess would be a good way of putting it. | |
| And we have to be that way in our lives to have discernment. | |
| Now, that's not saying that we shouldn't have hope that we can help as many as we can and bring them to the kingdom of heaven and do our best to be there for them, but... | |
| There has to come a point as Jesus teaches his own disciples where you have to let go of those who don't want to hear the message. | |
| You know, Jesus came and he said in no uncertain terms that he came to divide families. | |
| He said, I came to divide, you know, brothers and to divide families because there are going to be those who accept my word, Jesus is essentially saying, there are going to be those who reject it. | |
| And there is hell and there is heaven. | |
| And there are those who will end up in hell and there are those who will end up in heaven. | |
| Now, we as Christians can have hope that we can save as many as we can on the way and in between. | |
| And it's not a bad thing to have that hope for others. | |
| It's not. | |
| But, just like Jesus teaches his disciples here, let us have discernment through God as to how when somebody doesn't accept Jesus and when they don't want to be a part of the kingdom and when they outwardly not only decide not to accept Jesus but outwardly reject him, chastise him, mock him, That we have the discernment to kick the dust off our sandals and move on. | |
| It's a harsh and tough reality for some. | |
| Because we care as Christians, if you're like me, you care about everybody. | |
| You want everybody to be saved. | |
| You don't want to leave people behind. | |
| It's not a prospect that is very popular or happy to think about. | |
| But as Jesus teaches his disciples, we must have that discernment. | |
| Now, I'm not saying at the first moment somebody doubts Christ, we just throw them on the wayside and say, oh, well, dust off my shoe, bye-bye. | |
| Don't do that. | |
| But if somebody shows you who they are and rejects Jesus after every time that you've tried to do it, pray to God to give you the discernment to know when to kick that dust off your sandals and move on. | |
| And pray that he'll give you the faith to continue on, even when it feels like you have nothing, just like the disciples who left on the road together with nothing but God's promise. | |
| So, let's go ahead and say a prayer and then we'll wrap it up. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Lord and Heavenly Father, we pray for discernment. | |
| We pray, Lord, that as you taught your disciples, that we in our lives will know when to kick the dust off our sandals. | |
| Lord, we pray that we never have to leave anyone behind, that we can help save as many people as we can through you, with you in our heart. | |
| But if that's not your will and it's not a part of your plan, Lord, help us be able to recognize that and know when the right time is to move forward and move on. | |
| That way we can do maybe more things for the kingdom that we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. | |
| And also, Lord, we pray that we have the same faith of your disciples as they were sent out to do great things with the power and authority of God in their heart, Lord, but with nothing they were able to do great things. | |
| And we know, Lord, that sometimes in this world it can feel like we have nothing. | |
| And we pray, Lord, that you fill us spiritually so that we can continue on and help others and do your work in this world. | |
| We thank you most of all for our eternal salvation through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. | |
| In Jesus' name, amen. | |
| All right, guys. | |
| Well, I hope you enjoyed that take on it. | |
| If you have anything to leave in the comments, let me know what you think below. | |
| But with that being said, I want to thank you for watching this God's Grace is Greater segment. | |
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| So with that being said, though, we'll see you on the next one. | |
| Until then, my name is Craig. | |
| Godspeed. |
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