Element Church Insider

Matthew 17:  God is ONLY

I LOVE the story of the transfiguration.  Here Jesus takes His inner circle up a mountain (Peter, James and John).  It had been six days since Peter’s confession of “Jesus as the Christ” and now they are about to get another lesson.  Here on this mountain Jesus is transformed before them, glowing like the Sun and white as light.  As He is being transformed Elijah and Moses appear with Jesus.  To the Jewish person, these 2 men were 2 of THE GREATEST men of all time.  I think it’s interesting that Peter knows who they are.  They wouldn’t have had pictures, but that is beside the point.

We have a classic Peter moment here.  It was like he felt he HAD to say something.  So he exclaimed (probably blurted out) “We should build 3 shelters and stay here.”  WHILE Peter was speaking (blurting the first thing in his head.  Kinda like I do a lot)  a voice from the cloud(God) spoke up and said “This is my Son in whom I am pleased”.  This obviously freaked the disciples out (as it would to any of us) and they fell face first to the ground.  I imagine they were trembling, wondering, HOPING Peter hadn’t said something wrong.  Then this verse.

Matthew 17:7  ⁷ Then Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” ⁸ And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus.

Don’t miss this.  Who did they see?  ONLY JESUS!  Not Elijah, Moses, John the Baptist or any other prophet.  ONLY JESUS.  God is ONLY.  He is THE ONLY!  I think this is important.  Just 6 days earlier (ch. 16) Jesus asked “Who do people say I am?”  Their response was “Some say John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the other prophets (Moses).”  And here they see THE OTHER PROPHETS with Jesus.  And after the voice speaks, who is left?  ONLY Jesus.

This is so significant to these Jewish men.  It is NOT about Elijah, John the Baptist, Moses or ANY OTHER PROPHET.  They were great prophets, but THIS…this is Jesus.  THIS is My son and HE is the one and ONLY.  God is ONLY!  There is no other.  We need to remember that.  God is ONLY and there is no other.

No job.  No ministry.  No church.  No pastor.  No spouse.  No house.  No money.  No possession  NOTHING compares to JESUS.  He is ONLY!  He’s all we need.

Who have I been relying on or looking to instead of ONLY Jesus?  What has taken the place in my heart instead of ONLY Jesus?  Where are my weak spots that seem to pull me away from ONLY Jesus?

Looking to the ONLY,

Jeff

Matthew 16:  God is a CONFRONTER

God doesn’t let stuff go.  If you are going to stand in His way, He WILL confront you.  If you are going to ignore His commands He will NOT let it go un-recognized.  When we try to keep God from what He wants to accomplish in us, for us, through us or without us it is going to be CONFRONTED.

I know “Christians” who say “I don’t feel guilty about what I am doing” even while living in outright sin.   I would say how “Christian” are you because the Holy Spirit would MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY if you HAVE Him?  GOD CONFRONTS.  I’m getting off track here though.  Forgive me (I feel guilty, lol)

Matthew 16:21-28 says   ²¹ From then on Jesus^[j] began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. ²² But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him^[k] for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” ²³ Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

WOW!  Talk about confrontation.  Satan?  Does it get any worse than that.  Notice what Peter was confronted on too.  “Seeing things from a human point of view.”  OUCH.  How often do I do that?  No wonder I feel confronted a lot!  Lord, help me to see things from YOUR point of view.  Continuing.

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. ²⁵ If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. ²⁶ And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?^[l] Is anything worth more than your soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. ²⁸ And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

He kinda calls them out here.  He wasn’t talking about some random person “needing” to turn from their selfish ways.  He was basically saying “YOU need to turn from your selfish ways.  This whole following Me thing is not about YOU!  That’s why it’s called following ME!”

You know what needs to be said to a lot of us?  CHRISTIANITY IS NOT ABOUT YOU!  CHURCH is not about you!  JESUS is not about YOU!  I know I need to hear that a TON!  And I do hear it, because God is a CONFRONTER.

What parts of your life is God confronting that you need to address?  Where are you ingoring God and you KNOW He’s trying to say something?  Is following Christ becoming more about YOU and less about HIM?  If so, what needs to change?

Confronted (often),

Jeff

Matthew 15:  God s a SUPER HERO!   OK, ok.  I just couldn’t think of any other term that meant “x-ray vision”  God has x-ray vision. HUH?  I know, not starting off on a good note.  Today is pretty simple. (I said that, then typed it all out.  Maybe not)

Matthew 15:7 says You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ⁸ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. ⁹ Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’

Couple things here.  All of this being said to say GOD SEES RIGHT THROUGH OUR ACTIONS AND OUR METHODS TO OUR HEART!  He has x-ray vision.  He is a SUPER HERO!

#1  God is NOT about lip service.  Jesus said “They honor me with their lips…”  We are confident from the remainder of the verse that this is NOT what Jesus is looking for.  We say all the time that we should stop “talking the talk” and start “walking the walk”.  Did you know that is Biblical?  1 Corinthians 4:20 says “The Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” We really should stop talking and start walking.  When I start walking, that does ALL the talking I need.  We are so quick, like the Pharisees, to honor God with our lips.  What about our hearts?

#2  Where is my heart?  My lips can say ALL the right things while my heart is FAR from God.  This shows me how easily it is to drift from the God’s will.  We may START in His will but wander from it, not even realizing our hearts have left we STILL talk as if we are there.  2 Corinthians 13:5 says Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you ; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.

#3  Worship stinks sometimes.  NO, not that it sounds bad (although there are places it sounds bad…believe me).  I can THINK I’m worshipping (because my lips honor him) but it is ACTUALLY a farce.  I think sometimes God would rather we not even “worship” Him at all if it is NOT real.  Amos 5:23-24 says ²³ Away with your noisy hymns of praise!  I will not listen to the music of your harps. ²⁴ Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,  an endless river of righteous living.

#4  Stick with the WORD!  Now, I understand there are interpretations to the Bible, BUT, Jesus says “You can’t make up your own rules that aren’t from God.”  I can follow ALL KINDS of man made ideas and not ONCE know Jesus.  And guess who sees that?  JESUS!  “Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart.”  This was spoken about David when he was chosen at King, but I think it is true even now about US.  GOD sees our heart.  He has x-ray vision.

What are my lips saying?  Does it match my actions?  Would my actions be cosnidered REAL worship?  Are my actions speaking FOR or AGAINST Christ?  What am I relying on…man made ideas or GOD and His WORD?

Knowing He sees,

Jeff

Half way through our One Prayer journey.  Two more weeks to go.  If you need a calendar to follow along you can get it HERE.

Matthew 14: God is THE PROVIDER

Every time I read the story of the feeding of the 5,000 I am challenged.  Challenged in how I view my own life.  How I view our church life.  How I view Kingdom life.  Ever get like me and have the “But we only have…” mentality?  “But we only have five loaves and two fish.”

Matthew 14:13:21 says   ¹³ As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. ¹⁴ Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. ¹⁵ That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.” ¹⁷ “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered. ¹⁸“Bring them here,” he said. ¹⁹ Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. ²⁰ They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. ²¹ About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!

I think we forget sometimes who we are talking to.  Jesus tells the disciples “you feed them” and their response was “But we only have…”.  Jesus tells us “You do…you give…you go…you say…”, and often times our response is “But I only have…”.  God is THE PROVIDER.  Not A provider or ONE OF the providers.  He is THE PROVIDER.

I know MANY times I’ve been in a situation where the PROVIDER is right there, and I say “But we only have…” and I totally miss the opportunity to trust.

What need in your life have you been unwilling to give to the PROVIDER?  What situation do you find yourself in that seems to have no way out, but the PROVIDER is standing right there?  What task is God asking you to do that ONLY the PROVIDER can pull off through you?  Be looking to the PROVIDER and not to the situation.

Looking,

Jeff