Focus on Jesus and His Kingdom

Matthew 11; Matthew 12; Matthew 13
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Focus on Jesus and His Kingdom

Scripture

Matthew 11

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Observation

Are you weary? Are you burdened down? Do you need rest? Ok…Jesus says to you and to me, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Jesus dealt with conflict constantly and it was always with the folks that went to church. He didn’t have problems with the people that were not religious His problems were always with the Pharisees. He deeply offended them the scriptures say in chapter 13,

“53 When Jesus had finished telling these stories and illustrations, he left that part of the country. 54 He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” 55 Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. 56 All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” 57 And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.”

Some people are going to be offended by us and there is nothing we can do about it. Just as Jesus offended the religious Pharisees as He focused on the lost we will also get people upset when our focus is on the unreached.

Listen to what comes out of people’s mouths if you want to know what is in their hearts. Don’t kid yourself and think that what is coming out of their mouths is not a reflection of what is in their hearts.

Application

People by that do not care about the kingdom of God will not take me sideways. I will keep my focus on reaching the lost for Christ.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me maintain my focus on people that do not know You. Don’t let me waste my energy on people that want to argue and tear down. I pray that our leaders will be strong and not give in to negative people that only want to destroy. Thank You for what happened this past weekend. Thank You for every person that volunteered and went out to our city. It was a very very good weekend.

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