First General Baptist

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:49-10:1

~You think you will follow Jesus until your comfort zone is tested.

~He was concerned about caring for his father until he died. Wait.

~Wait

Every excuse is reasonable.

Have you noticed that God usually calls those who are working to work for Him, people who are busy to be busy for Him? He calls you from something to something else, to leave in order to go.

Have you noticed that Jesus asks things of people that they won’t do?

Jesus does not want part of you but all of you!

A mission board executive wrote to David Livingstone in Africa asking if there was a good road to his remote outpost.  "If so," he said, "we have a couple of men who would like to come and help you."  The famous missionary wrote back,  "If they need a good road, don't send them.  I need men who can come, road or no road."

“If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:46-48

Our relationship with Jesus is tied to our relationship with those in need. The needy are the ambassadors of Jesus. Jesus is the Ambassador of God.

~“The character of a society can be judged by how it treats its weakest members.”

~“The only way to be foolishly happy in this world is to be young enough, well enough, and have money enough--and not give a care about other people. But as soon as you don't have any of the first three, or if you have compassion for the weeping world around you, then it is impossible to have the foolish kind of happiness that I believe some Christians present as Christianity.”

~George Washington, "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:37-45

~Jesus with His disciples: what is the opposite of love? _______

~The disciples and the crowd would have been happy for Jesus to stay around and keep doing what He’s doing…until they die, then they will be glad He kept His appointment with the cross. People are always looking at the temporal, Jesus is always looking at the eternal.

Pilgrim's Progress,   "I remember now what my mother has told me, namely that the way to heaven is like a ladder and the way to hell is like down a hill.  But I'd rather go up the ladder to life than down the hill to death…I must continue, for to go back means nothing but death.  To go forward is the fear of death, but beyond it is life everlasting.  I'll keep going forward."

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:28-36

~Disciples of Jesus: we are equal but not the same. None of us grow spiritually at the same rate…and the rate fluctuates

~”To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord…” Heaven is never far away.

~Peter, James and John. Jesus uses us in spite of ourselves, not because of ourselves.

~”Hear Him!”

In the Spirit, hearing is more important than seeing. 2 Corinthians 5:7,

Romans 10:17

Elijah and the rain cloud

Message: What every mother wants her children to hear

Text: Luke 2:10-11

 ~There is a savior…

The angel didn’t tell the shepherds anything they weren’t waiting to hear.

A return to Joy! Jesus didn’t come to save it, He came to save you!

Colossians 1:16

 ~He is Christ the Lord. His Name is Jesus…

Matthew 16:16-17

 Ravi Zacharias, "Pleasure is a means, not an end.  Joy should be the greatest end. Every pleasure that is sought as an end in itself ultimately ceases to satisfy, and the hunger for a joy that rises above everything else continues."

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:20-26

Becoming a Christian is a lot about Jesus saving you from what you’ve done wrong. Being a disciple is a lot about your decision to start doing right. Vs 22 is about what Jesus did to save you, to be a payment for your sins. Vs 22 is about Jesus giving His life for you. Vs 23 is about you giving the rest of your life for Him.

Requirements for discipleship:

Deny yourself; pick up your cross (burden, suffering, etc); every day, not once in a while; exclusively for Jesus; lose your life, give up your life for Jesus; be more concerned with the things of the soul than worldly things; begin being proud of who you are in Jesus.   Not ashamed

Why in the world would anyone hear what Jesus says about being His disciple and still want to be one?                                                   

1) __ _____ _______.

2) __ ______? A desire for the rest of my life to count for something more, for something eternal.

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:18-20

Matthew 16:16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

(Savior & Lord. Lord & Savior)

Who is Jesus to you?

~Son of God

Ps 139, John 3:16

~The Christ (Messiah, Anointed One)

Eugene Peterson, "The assumption of spirituality is that always God is doing something before I know it.  So the task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done, but to become aware of what God is doing so that I can respond to it and participate and take delight in it."

Abraham Kuyper,   "There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out,  "This is mine! This belongs to me!"

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:10-17

~Need never takes a break. Ministry is open ended, the work is never done.

~Jesus didn’t say, “Stand back and watch this!” He said, “You, feed them.” You don’t get to choose, Jesus chooses.

~Disciples are very practical, Jesus is very supernatural. We very easily dismiss the impossible so we can concentrate on the reasonable. Our ministry is never going to reach the level of walking by faith until we deal with the impossible Jesus asks of us.

~The disciples ended up with more than they started with. When you finally get serious about Jesus, he doesn’t ask for what you have, He asks for all you have. But you will end up with more than you started with!

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 9:1-9

A new phase of ministry

Jesus – Luke 8:1

Paul – Acts 9:5-6, 18-26 (25-26)

Christian Believer

Disciple  Follower/Learner   

Minister Servant

What does “ready” mean? When will you be ready, when will you feel ready?

Ravi Zacharias, "There was a woman who wanted to know how she could rid herself of her miseries.  She was told to go from door to door and when she found a home where there were no worries, to ask there for a morsel of grain.  She returned a long while later saying she had not found a single home that fit that description.  In fact, she had become so involved in hearing of the heartache of others that she had forgotten her own."

Message: Resurrection, New Life,  New Spirit…A New Start

Text: John 13-16 (14:16-20, 16:7)

Jesus moves from being “over there”  to “in here.”

Ephesians 5:18, “…be filled with the Spirit.”

The Two Cups

The First Cup: Jesus and the woman at the well. John 4:13-14  To be filled is a choice. Jesus has chosen you, now you must choose Him.

The Second Cup: It’s happening right now.

Philippians 2:17, 2 Timothy 4:6

George MacDonald,  "There is a woman who has met a sudden sorrow.  'I wish I'd never been made!' she exclaims petulantly and bitterly:  to which her friend quietly replies, 'My dear, you're not made yet.  You're only being made - and this is the Maker's process.'"