When Jesus talks to the disciples about sin, He never minimizes its seriousness. Because He knew He would die on the cross to pay for sin, Jesus always viewed sin as serious-He wants His followers to do the same.

Giving daily praise to God reminds believers of His gifts, reveals God's character, and refocuses our perspective on His sovereignty.

What do YOU see when you look at the world?

In this passage, Jesus clears up some issues regarding confusion about suffering, competition, and judgment.

Immediately after the mountain top transfiguration experience, the disciples find themselves unable to drive a demon out of a boy. Failing in service to the Lord can shake the faith. But God will help even faith that is very small, or faith that has been shaken by doubt when faced with disappointment or fear. When we serve in God's strength, God is glorified. If we try to serve in our own strength, we will fail. Everything is possible for him who believes!

If we don't see Jesus for who He is, we won't follow him. An inaccurate view of Christ leads to an incomplete understanding of what it is to follow him. In the first verse of the 9th chapter, we find our Lord preparing His desciples for somethingthat only the 3 of them would see - the Lord Jesus Christ as glorious King of the coming kingdom. This morning we're able to share in an experience that James, John, and Peter had with the Lord. We're going to see the power of the Lord revealed through the transfiguration.

There's a trend in Christianity today where people view obedience to the Lord as optional rather than obligatory. Many believe that we servie 'self' first, then give whatever is left over to the Lord. The idea of self-denial and 'yeildedness' to the Lord is foreign to them. In today's scripture verses, Jesus himself tells us that there are only two courses we may follow. Either we will choose to serve and follow Him, or we choose self. To try to play it both ways is really choosing self - not Christ.

There are many people today who are spiritually blind. They choose to remain so and as a result, they don't experience the freedom that Christ alone can give.

When we look through scripture, we can see people doubt the Lord after monumental displays of His power. This morning we'll see that after the Lord fed 5,000+ and then 4,000+, the disciples doubted whether the Lord would feed them! Faithlessness can sneak up on any of us and come at any time from any number of directions. It's easy to allow doubt and distraction to take hold of us and cause us to lose sight of what God is able to do. Don't allow the leaven of unbelief in this secular world we live in discourage your faith.

Faith can come in such unexpected way from unexpected people. There's a temptation that we can sometimes have to write someone off. Why bother going to a particular place and talk to a particular kind of people - they're too far gone, they won't listen to what I have to say. In the passage before us, Jesus went into the gentile nations to rest, but wound up ministering. As we interact with people all around us, we're going to find faith in unexpected places. The key to capitalizing on this is to be ready to reach out and share God's wonderful message wherever we are.