Your Focus on Serving the Needs of Others and Not Your Own Needs Brings You Closer to “Living In Jesus”

DEVOTIONAL VIDEO

 

MESSAGE SUMMARY:

Feeding of the 5000 (St. Andrews Episcopal Church; Ft, Worth, TX)

Living like Jesus and to receive what God knows that we require, we need to move our focus away from our personal desires and perceived needs onto the real needs of others. Mark’s teaching, in Mark 6:34 regarding the miraculous “feeding of the 5,000”, we see that Jesus’ compassion for the people was greater than His personal needs to grieve for the death of John the Baptizer and to rest. Upon His arrival to the intended personal resting spot, Jesus began, immediately, to minister to the people: “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”. Like Jesus and to receive what God knows that we require, we need to move our focus away from our personal desires and perceived needs onto the real needs of others. When we move our focus away from ourselves and to a “outward focus”, we become free to hear and to receive from God.

After John the Baptizer had been beheaded by King Herod, the Apostles that told Jesus of this news, also, suggested that they get away from the crowds of people into a desolate area in which they could rest and pray. However, a large crowd of people followed Jesus and His Apostles onshore so that when Jesus arrived at the area in which they wished to rest. Jesus had compassion on the people that had followed Him. Therefore, He began teaching, in Mark 6:34, to a very large group. When Jesus’ teachings carried on late into the evening, His Apostles suggested that Jesus send the crowd away into the villages to buy food. Rather, Jesus asked His Apostles to determine how much food was on hand in the crowd; and they determined that they had five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus blessed this food and, in Mark 6: 42-44, all the crowd ate from this food: “And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.".

As in Jesus’ “feeding of the 5,000”, God desires that we look to Him; to take what He has given us; and to give to those in need. No matter where you are or in what context of your life’s involvement that you find yourself, you need to be willing to be broken vessel for use by God for His purposes.

 

TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that, because I am in Jesus Christ, I will think like Jesus. (Philippians 2:5f). “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”. (Philippians 4:14).

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Mark 6:31; Mark 6:34; Mark 6:41; Mark 6:43; Psalms 46:1-11.

THIS SUNDAY’S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach’s Current Sunday Sermon: “How Much Time Do I Have Left as a Father to Meet God’s Expectations and Receive the Joys of Being a Father In Christ?": at our Website: www.AWFTL.org/listen/.

WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “The Apostle John Tells You: ‘You who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life’”:  www.AWFTL.org/watch

DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB