Who’s on first

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Mark 10: 45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Who’s on first in your life?

There was an old man who one day had a dream!

Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD

 

In his dream the Holy Spirit told him to prepare himself for tomorrow the Lord would come and visit him in his house.

The old man got up very early and cleaned his house and made sure everything was dusted and put into its right place. He re-arranged his furnisher so that his special guess would have the best place to sit in his home. The last thing he did was to make some very special cookies just for his guess.

As the day slowly passed the old man notices that his special guess was late.

Soon the door bell rang and the old man jumped up and said at last. But wend he opened the door there was a little boy there. The young boy said hi Mr. I am collecting money to help feed the poor can you please help.

The old man looked at the boy and said sure, please come in and wait right here. The old man went to his room and got some money and gave it to the boy and said I hope this will help son. The boy could not help but notice the cookies on the plate, he said sir would you mind if I have a cookie. The old man said I made them for a very special guess who will be coming to see me today, I am sure he would not notices if a few cookie was missing. The young boy thanked the old man and went his way.

An hour went by and the door bell rang again. The old man rush to open it and see his special guess, but there was only a poor man in old rags standing there who said sir could you spare some food. The old man invited him in and gave him a nice meal and a cookie for dessert; he even found some clothes to keep him warm. And so this baggier went away full and with moor then he asked for.

The old man notices that the day was far spent and his special guess had not come. Just then there was a gentle knock at the door. That must be him the old man said as he rusted to open the door, only to find a little old lady standing their. Sir she said, could you please spare an old lady a place to sit and rest awhile.

So he invited her in, and she found a nice place to rest her tired old legs. The old man got her a cool glass of water as she ate the last of the cookies he made for his special guess. She thanks him for being so kind as she got up to leave.

The old man looked outside as the Sun was now setting the days was over and his special guess had not come. Did he misunderstand something or maybe he done something wrong, he just did not know why.

The old man cleaned up his kitchen and slowly made his way up to his bedroom. Disappointed that his special guess had not come, as he knelt by his bedside he prayed
O Lord, why “why did you not come today.

I waited for you all day long, I prepared my home as you asked me to do, but you did not come, did I do something wrong, O Lord I just don’t understand!

Then he heard a still small voice saying.
My dear friend!
Three times today my shadow passed over your threshold, and three times to day I did visited with you.
I was the young boy collecting money for the poor.
I was the bagger you let in your door.
I was the old lady who sat a rest in your chair.

Each time I knock you let me in and each time you treated me like your special friend. Do we do the same or do we sometime forget to treat others like we would treat Jesus.

Matt 25: 35-40
35: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
40: And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Let us pray!
——————————————————————————————–

Who is Jesus: Why would God the Father send His Son to a place like this, a place full of hate, war, and bloodshed?

The Bible tells us that God so loved this world (John: 3:16). The story of redemption is a mystery not only to mankind but unto the Heavenly host and the Billions and Billions of other worlds that God and His Son created. {John: 3:17} For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Jesus the Father only Son came to show us what the Father is like and to show us that He God loves and wants us to all be a part of His Kingdom forever. But in order for us to have eternal life we must believe by faith in what God the Son did in our behalf, and we must do the things God the Son told us to do. John:14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments. This will show the world who you really love and who is first in your life.

We are not only to love God but also the people all around us, why because God kingdom is a kingdom of love for one another.

Luke 10:
25: And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

No matter where you go in life you will always have a challenge before you. There are always people who believe in God but want to do it there way. This Lawyer believed but not in Jesus, he believed in God but not in Gods Son.

Many believe today in the Son but not in what the Son said to do. I am not a bad person so Jesus will just have to take me as I am. I don’t feel I am doing anything wrong, I go to Church sometimes, and I do pay tithes now and then, I even give a donations to the poor once a year. So you see I am not a bad person at all, I am really good on the inside.

What does Gods word say about this?

I DID IT MY WAY                                                                                                         Prov:16:25:
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

OK So here we are back to our Lawyer, what did Jesus say unto him

Luke:10

26: He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27: And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28: And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Our Lawyer did well for himself did he not, but because he was a Lawyer he did not stop there. He though he could our smart Jesus because he felt pride in his heart.

29: But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

Friends do this and live, never question the Lord. Take him at his word, for in his word is life and that life is the life of all mankind.
30: And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

The best way to get peoples attention is with a story: You will find all through the Bible stories that Jesus told, always to illustrate a lesson or to bring home a meaning.

31: And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Now Jesus was not using the characters in this story just to be mean, Jesus knew there hearts and told the fact as there were. God does not like pride, “Why” because pride started in the heart of Lucifer and was passed on to all mankind at the fall in the Garden.

32: And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

Who was the Levites; they were a people specially chosen by God to bare the Ark of God when Israel was on there way to the promise land. God did set them aside, surely if a Levite saw a man fallen in need of help he would stop and give a hand, but he did not.

33: But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

Who was the Samaritan, they were the outcast, because they were not full blooded Israelite. So these people were looked upon as the low class. Not having part of the promise that God gave to Abraham but yet Jesus said that this “Samaritan had compassion”

34: And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

The Samaritan did not only take care of this mans physical needs just then. He went even further in making sure the needs would be meet after he left. He made arrangements that if the bill would be more then the money left behind, he would pay the balance when he returned.

35: And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

Now let’s look at what reaction the Lawyer had to the question Jesus had for him.

36: Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

The Lawyer had no choice but to answer the question correctly for now he seen clearly his responsibility, not just to his own family, or people living in the same subdivision that he live in, but his responsibility to all mankind.

37: And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Listen to what Jesus said in the book of

1John 4:20:
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

Have you talked to Jesus lately, did he talk back to you, maybe you were too busy to hear
As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life”. Mark 10:17
This young man had fabulous wealth. He was the Bill Gates of 2000 years ago. A young, physically fit, aristocrat. Imagine this wealthy man Kneeling at the feet of Jesus, the penniless prophet from Galilee.

 
This physically fit young aristocrat had just happened to be watching earlier when Jesus tenderly took the children on his lap and lovingly received and blessed them. He watched as Jesus took these little children and blessed them and he thought, if Jesus can do that for them, He can do that for me. He could bless me. In the meantime, Jesus had moved on. Finally he decided: I’m going to chase after Him. I’ll see if HE will bless me. This mans heart was deeply touched. He felt a love for Jesus and desired to be one of His disciples. He was sincere and earnest. If Jesus could bless the little children He could bless him.

 
He was a ruler-( Luke 18:18) He was an official of the honored council of the Jews – he was in a high position for his young age. This important ruler kneels before the lowly Jesus, who never held any office or position.
It is a rare event when a young man has the best things this earthly life can offer early in his life. He had youth with its accompanying health. He had position or authority. He was a ruler. He had great wealth.

 
However he lacked eternal life which is a greater asset than all others combined. If you don’t have eternal life, it doesn’t matter what car you drive, it doesn’t matter where you live. Eternal life is the greatest thing that you can possess.

 
Jesus looked deeply into the face of this young man, and He recognized that this man was sincere. He read his character. Jesus saw that the man had qualifications which, if united with Jesus, Himself, would result in tremendous success for God.

 

He could be a fantastic disciple. Look at the qualifications he brought. He also saw that his supreme love of self must be totally eradicated. There was the problem. It must be surrendered.

So Jesus gave the man a test. Notice
(Mark 10:18 NIV) “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone.

 
Then Jesus proceeded to list six of the commandments that prohibit wrong actions against our neighbors. Obviously Jesus believed in all Ten Commandments. He only listed six of them. These six were chosen for a divine test.

 
He proceeds to list all those that have to do with wrong actions against people. These were the six that the rich young ruler was lacking in. Jesus knew that, and so He listed all of them: 19:”You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'”

 
20: “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jewish boys, at the age of thirteen and onward were considered men, and so they were responsible, they were taught to love the law of God.. He said, “I’ve kept them all. I haven’t lacked on one.

 
The rich young man was saying: In all my short life not once have I ever hurt anyone. But Jesus was talking more than avoiding evil. Jesus is asking if the man is willing to do some positive good to others.

 
There are millions of good people in this world. They have never hurt anyone. Have you seen this type of people? They sometimes sit in the pews of every Church; They avoid breaking the law and live a decent life. But they are lost. That’s the rich young ruler’s case.

 
Respectability involves a prohibition against doing wrong but not includes doing something positive or right. Christianity not only avoids evil but it performs a positive good. The rich young ruler had never stolen anything, but he had never been sacrificially generous. He had never killed anyone, but he hadn’t gone out saving any lives, either. He had avoided doing the wrong, but he really wasn’t involved in doing anything good, except accumulation wealth.

 
Now, he claimed to have kept all six of these commandments. Did he? No, he did not. It wasn’t true that he kept all six. Actually you can’t keep the second six commandments unless you have kept the first 4 commandments.

 
You have to keep them all. The world and its riches had become his idol. He loved wealth. God was not first in his heart. Therefore you can’t put people ahead unless God is first. You cannot unselfishly love people unless you have experienced the depth of the love of God.

 
Jesus listed the commandments that deal with our relationship to our fellow human beings. This was the rich mans downfall. He loved money more God, more than all else.

 
I think it’s true sometimes that America is headed toward a cashless society. You’ve heard this. We’re going to do away with all cash, just going to have debit cards, and have a national identity. If it is true that America is heading towards a cashless system, some of us are ahead of the times.
Some of us are already in a cashless society: we don’t have any money. But not this rich man; he had all kinds of money. Was money his problem? No, money was not his problem. I’ll tell you what his problem was in a minute.

Look at verse 21:- Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

 
” Give all your money to the poor, the ones that are standing beside the road. Do you ever see them holding up signs that says, “I am homeless. I’m starved to death. I will work for food and money. What is he basically saying to you? “I want your money.” Do you give to those people? Well, this man was told, “you sell everything you’ve got. Go out and find the poor people and you give all of your money to these poor people. Then you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.”

 
No-one can serve God and Money at the same time. It doesn’t work. You have to choose, and so Jesus imposed this test to detect covetousness. The man was a covetous person.

 
Many of the examinations of life come to test our allegiance to God. Like Zacchaeus, the central issue here is not money. The central test was not selling everything.

 
Salvation does not come through having an empty bank account. Every time your check bounces, you say, “That proves that I’m saved.” Not at all!! If that’s the case a lot of people are saved because they’re out there bouncing checks.

 
The issue here is not getting rid of all your assets and selling everything and giving it away. The true Christian places his trust completely in Jesus. That’s the issue. He places his trust completely in Jesus and not in his wealth or his money.

God the Father and God the Son showed what true love was at the Cross in Calvary. Not just to this world but to all of Creation. He showed us how to live in peace by putting God First and loving our neighbor

God is love and God expect from all of His created being love in return, but the love God wants is a love that is unconditional a total surrender of oneself into the hands of his creator God. In the book of (Genesis: 3:) is the story of how man fell away from his creator God.

God gave to man the same as He gives to all being whether spirit or flesh; the freedom of choice. For Adam and Eve it was a test of obedience, you see if you truly love someone you will do what they ask with out questions. The serpent made Eve believe that God was holding something back from them and so her love for God became distrust.

When she went to her husband Adam right away he knew it was the evil one that they have been told about. But here Adam sin was not only is eating of the forbidding tree, he sinned because he did not total trust God. He knew that God said “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17)

Adam could not see how God could fix this problem; he could not see being separated from his wife Eve. Adam loved God but here he loved his Wife Eve more then he loved his creator God, Adam broke the first commandment.

We must learn to love God first above everything else in life. We must love God more then our Earthly Mothers and Fathers, more then our Brothers and Sisters, more then our Wife and Children, we must learn to love God more then our own life. God must be number one in your life; it is a total surrender into the hands of God by faith.

Look at {Exodus: 20: 3} Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Do you understand what God is saying, we are to put nothing before our love to God. God must be first in our life, look at (Rev: 12: 11) and they loved not their lives unto the death.

When you learn to love God first in your life you will begin to understand how true Christian in the passed would rather die then to dishonor the God they love.

Understand God must be first in your life, God must be first, God must be first, God must be first. Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty is what the angle is crying (Rv:4:8:)

Everything in this world must come second. Do you know how and why Jesus could do miracle, yes He was also God but He did not use His Godly power, He used His love to and through His Father to do all miracles.

John:14:12: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Look at the prayer Jesus said in John 11:
41: And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
42: And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
43: And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
44: And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Jesus had already prayed to His father to preformed this miracle, why look at the scriptures. So that the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

Jesus wanted us to know with out a drought that the Father God has sent His Son to show us the love that the Father, Son, and Spirit God has for all His creation.

Can you understand what is going on, God the almighty Father Loves us with a Godly love that is passed mankind’s understanding. God loves us so much that His did not even spare His Son His only Son but gave Him as a ransom for the payment of the law that man broke in the garden(Ezek:18:4:) the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Can you understand that the death that Jesus went through on the Cross was Godly love was being ripped away from Gods Son Jesus who new no sin so that He could pay the price of sin for all who by faith would believe in Him.

Our understanding is so limited of the cost that the Father& Son paid in order to save man

All God wanted from man was his love in return for all the good things and blessing that God gave to us, but what did man do. We spit on His blessing as if they were nothing, to our creator we became angry because we wanted everything our way.

Conscientious ObjectorMt:7:12: Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Jesus never gave up; by His life and His death He made a way for Mankind to be reconnected to our heavenly Father, why because of Love. We can’t change ourselves we are born of sin, but by giving our life to God the Father He will do the changing in our life through His Holy Spirit that He gives to all who believe in Him.
                                                                                          John: 14:
13: And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14: If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.

 

Everything is possible to someone who believe and has made God first in there lives.

Mt:21:22: And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Mk:9:23: Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Put your life and faith in the hands of a God that Loves you and died to show you what true love is about.

May God be with you and continue to send blessing upon you.

Elder Tim McNab
Restoring Gods Truth Ministries

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