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God Cares

Jesus says, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Serving God

‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”

Being ‘All In’

“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Permissiveness

“What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.”

Humility before God

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Continued Perseverance

“…will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?”

Valuing the Lost

‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

Valuing Humility

“…whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Divine Selectivity

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”

Living Free of Entanglements

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Denying God’s Agent

“… but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven…”

Agreeability

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”

Delegated Authority

“Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.”

Distinctively LORD

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Stumbling Resolution

“So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

It is I

“Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Knowing When to Listen

For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

God Sufficiently

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Disciples for the Harvest

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Being Productive

“For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Accepting Forgiveness

“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

God of the Unlikelys

…immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit… “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”

As in Heaven

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus, the Fulfillment

“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.”

Blessings & Woes

v.20 “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
v.24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

Distinctiveness

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light”

Beyond Traditions, Part Two

And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…

Beyond Traditions, Part One

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

In All Fairness

“As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of Him who sent me.”

Repentance Lived Out

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

Identifying with Father

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Self-Righteous vs. Repentant

“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Doing Work Quietly

“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

Belief in Jesus’s Authority

But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority…”

Belief to Eternal Life

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

True Worship of God

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Counting the Cost

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

‘Not Yet’ Time

And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

Spirit-led to Temptation

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came…

God’s Good Will

…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Path to Forgiveness

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Conceived from Holy Spirit

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

God Incarnate from Eternity

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’

To Know with Certainty

…having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Honor God

My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.