Victory Life KY

Commissioned VII

Episode Summary

Matthew 10, Jesus sends out His first disciples. “You go preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

Episode Notes

Matthew 10, Jesus sends out His first disciples. “You go preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

10:37, “He who loves father or mother, son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who loses his life for My sake will find it.
He who receives you receives Me

Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

The legalistic, religious system of that day was a severe burden, but Jesus is introducing a brand new way of living.

Let's be honest, we've all experienced stress, anxiety, worry, and fear.

And the world we live in thrives on whatever will add to these.

The real question we've all got to be honest about is, are we willing to make the necessary changes to not get trapped in these unGodly emotions?

Let’s face it, staying focused on the negative is a guaranteed path to just the opposite of, “My yoke is easy, My burden is light.”

Don't misunderstand me, I realize making a change in your thinking doesn't automatically change your situation.

But until there is a change in our thinking, overcoming any obstacle will continue providing stress, worry, and anxiety.

Let me ask it like this, how big of a role would you say our thoughts play when it comes to stress, anxiety, and worry?

2Corinthians 10:4-5,NIV- “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

God designed us so that His word will transform our thinking, which will transform our faith, which is how we're designed to live.

But when we're in the middle of things not going right, that’s where stress and worry try taking over.

Because when we're stepping out in faith, following Jesus, discovering our new life of faith, usually it's the challenges, the difficulties that trip us up.

How many can related to this, you're running your race, you’re stepping out on your faith, you're focused on Jesus, and your motive is for Him to change you circumstances, but His motive is to CHANGE YOU!!

Hebrews 12:1-2,NLT- Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

I can't help but wonder how many of us have been guilty of allowing whatever we've been going through to define us instead of keeping our eyes on Jesus?

The faith question is, are we going to come to the place where we trust Him in the middle of the storm, the challenge, when everything isn’t going the way we wanted?

Could it be, that if we continually stress and worry over something that it's actually revealing an area in our own life that we've haven't completely given to Him.

Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

But the minute we come to the place where He actually becomes our shepherd, things like stress, anxiety, worry, and fear stop having the same kind of influence over us.

Once again in Matthew 12:15, a great multitude followed Him and He healed them all.

Later in the chapter Jesus is still teaching about the Kingdom and He says things like: A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. And a tree is know by its fruit. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (Just kidding...)

v.36-37, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

As we go into chapter 13, Jesus begins revealing one of the foundational principles of how the Kingdom of Heaven operates in the parable of the sower.

Matthew 13:10-13,NKJV- “And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

As Jesus explains this parable, in Mark’s version He says this, “He who has ears to hear, let him. Then He goes on to say, if you don’t understand this parable, you won’t understand any of them.

Luke’s writing of this account lets us know that the seed is the word of God.

Matthew 13:19-23,NKJV- “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.
v.20, But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
v.21, yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
v.22, Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
v.23, But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Throughout this chapter Jesus repeatedly tells us through different parables about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.

Matthew 14:16-20,NKJV- “But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”
He said, “Bring them here to Me.”
Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.
So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.”

Jesus walks on water as well as Peter. And once again, “As many as were brought to Him were healed.”

Matthew 15:11,NKJV- “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Matthew 15 also shows us the only other account Jesus referred to as “great faith.” v.28, “Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”

Once again in chapter 15, Jesus heals all the sick that came to Him.
Matthew 16, Pharisees seek a sign. Jesus warns disciples about Pharisee’s teachings.

Matthew 16:15, “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

v.19,NLT,“And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.””

Remember, everything about this series is driven from Jesus’ commands in chapter 28, commissioning us to go do these things He’s teaching, because He’s given each of us with supervisory authority.