Beholding Jesus

(v.2-4) in these verses, Jesus is talking to the crowd and to His disciples. He is telling them that they must listen and obey everything that is taught to them by the teachers of the law and of the Pharisees, and they must obey them and do everything that they tell them. But they should only do what they say and not what they do because they do not practice what they preach. All they want is the authority and the title that has been given to them.

You see this often even in this day and age. All people want is to be well known. They want the attention. They want the fame. They want the publicity. They want to know the feeling of acceptance, so they will stoop down low and become hypocrites in order to get what they want.

This is not the way to preach the Gospel. When you have a ministry, you need to have your heart in the right place in order for it to be effective and fruitful. When God is calling you into a ministry, it can be very beneficial to everyone involved. But if your heart is not in the place it once was or if you have become dry, your ministry can have the opposite effect and it can become more harmful than anything else.

Before I came to FMA, I was one of the main leaders and was the worship leader at my youth group. I was leading worship every Wednesday, one to two times a month on Sunday morning services, and I was a part of the worship team once a month. On top of that, I had my life outside of church and leadership. I was working and I had my friends and family that took up a lot of my time. While I was packing my schedule so full of multiple things, I was forgetting to schedule time for God. I was pouring out, but I was not being poured into. I got to a place where I was so dry and my ministry was not going anywhere.

God has really showed me that I absolutely need to specifically set aside time for Him. A time of isolation from the world around me. A Father daughter hang out. A date with my Lover. Right now, I am sitting in my room with just a little bit of light shining, ear plugs in my head, my phone turned off, my Bible open, and my heart open. This is a time that I have specifically set aside for God. This is my Tuesday night date with my beautiful Bridegroom. It is in these times of quiet, isolation that God can really touch our hearts and our lives. And after these intimate times, we are left feeling refreshed and feeling like we can take on another day.

(v. 15) this is harsh! Jesus is going over the “seven woes”. And in this chapter, He is saying that those who go overseas “soul searching” will find people to convert and those converts will become corrupt just like the one doing the converting. This is another good example of how not having your heart in the right place can really effect the ministry you are a part of. When you are a missionary on the mission field, it is important to have your heart in the right place. If your heart is not in this ministry, it can be very harmful.

When you are ministering the Gospel to the lost, especially to people who have never heard about Jesus, and your heart is not right with God, it will give the person you are ministering to the wrong idea of who God is and what He is all about. It will make the person you are ministering to the idea that all Christians are hypocrites. This will leave the person with a bad taste in their mouth about what true Christianity is all about. Christians already have a bad reputation to a lot of people groups. Let’s not make it any worse.

When we are ministering the Gospel, we need to show the love of Christ. We need to walk like Jesus walked on the earth. Speak like Jesus spoke. Love like Jesus loves. Showing people the love of God can be the most powerful encounter in a person’s life and it can be life changing. God is love and He wants His people to know His love. When our hearts are not beating in love, then what kind of image are we setting before people?

(v.37-39) these verses are also very harsh, but in the most living way. Jesus is telling the people that they must set their hearts straight or they shall not see the Lord again. In other words, they are screwed.

Not having our hearts knit together with God’s heart will not only put a damper on the effectiveness of our ministry, but it will also have a negative effect on our relationship with God. And we do not want that and neither does God. He loves us even when our hearts are dark and cloudy and He desires us. Time to clear the fog and turn on the Light in our hearts. For He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.